Is abortion legal in Ghana?
By law, abortions in Ghana are legal in cases of rape, incest, fetal abnormality or disease, or “defilement of a female idiot,” or if they are performed to protect physical or mental health; they must be provided by registered and trained health personnel in an approved facility.
Abortion in Ghana is faced with serious stigmatization to the extent that people who patronize it feel ashamed to make it known. This makes it difficult to capture accurate information on abortion incidence and unintended pregnancy in official records. This in effect has had a negative impact on planning reproductive health services in the country.
The legal status of abortion in Ghana
- According to Ghanaian law, abortions are legal in cases of rape, incest, fetal abnormality or disease, or “defilement of a female idiot,” or if they are performed to protect physical or mental health; they must be provided by registered and trained health personnel in an approved facility.
- Despite efforts by the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service to expand postabortion care and safe abortion services, several factors impede the use of these services. These include stigmatization of abortion, poor knowledge of abortion’s legal status among the public and medical professionals, misperceptions about the safety of legal abortion, and inadequate access to services.
- Many women in Ghana seek illegal abortions, which vary widely in terms of safety. Complications from unsafe abortions contribute substantially to Ghana’s high maternal mortality, which was estimated at 310 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2017.
CREDIT: Guttmacher Institute
