The public needs more education on teenage pregnancy-Human Right Activist

Human right activist, Eva Ankrah who is with the Human Right Development Foundation has stated that in order to decrease the increasing rate of teenage pregnancy in the country, the general public should be conscientized.
To the best of her knowledge, lack of education amongst the general public is the major cause of the increasing rate of teenage pregnancy in the country.
In an interview with Chelsy Sey on Y 97.9 FM’s Ryse N Shyne she disclosed, “Child marriage is currently on a rise in the country especially the Western region and teenage pregnancy is the cause and effect of child marriage”.
She disclosed that based on the kind of society we find ourselves in, parents tend to push their underaged children into early marriages but that should seize.
“The more they get pregnant, the more they get into marriage early because once the girls get pregnant, the next thing parents do is to push the girls to the men who impregnated them; and currently, we have so many of such cases that we’re still trying to solve as an organization”, she shared.
She believes that for this to come to an end, the public should be educated on the effects such actions can have on the teenage girl and also society.
She furthered that some people might not know that having sex with a girl below the age of 16 is defilement, “even if she took you to a room to sleep with her it doesn’t change anything it is defilement and the law must deal with you”.
Eva believes the time has come for the laws in the country to be put in place to help put people going against the laws in check.
“We have laws in this country. But have we asked ourselves what happens to the guys responsible for the pregnancy of these teenagers because, this act is an act of defilement and yet still, nothing is done to them when they should be held accountable and responsible for what they did. It looks like the people either don’t know that defilement is a crime or they think it is a normal practice” she emphasized.
She advised that if we do not enforce the law, we will continue to have more of such cases because, “the mere fact of an underaged girl being pregnant is a criminal offense”.
“So after educating the public, the next important thing is the enforcement of the law and the public should also be aware that if you have sex with a girl below 16 years it is defilement with or without her consent”.
She also advised parents to be more cautious and quit handling such issues at home but rather, report to the police for it to be solved and the the culprits dealt with.
By: Gyamfuah Owusu-Ackom