Medical experts have advocated for greater awareness on the dangers of unsafe abortions among the youth in Osun State.
Experts who made the call Tuesday during a workshop on stakeholder co-creation to address unsafe abortion stressed the need for young people to have adequate sexuality education to prevent unplanned pregnancies.
The workshop, sponsored by the ‘African Coalition for Abortion Research and Communication’, was held in the main hall of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Children and Social Welfare, to validate the results of research on unsafe abortion.
During the programme, the lead researcher, Dr Olutoyin Ikuteyijo, said the findings showed that there is still a lack of adequate awareness among the youth on unsafe abortion.
Ikuteyijo, a professor at the Department of Public Health, Osun State University, said Osun is one of the states with the highest prevalence of unwanted pregnancies among youth, adding that the workshop was aimed at finding a lasting solution to the problem.
She said: “There have been many unplanned pregnancies among adolescents in Osun State. NDHS data shows that Osun State is one of the most prevalent when it comes to unplanned pregnancies among youth.
“We are now bringing together stakeholders to find a lasting solution to the problem of unsafe abortions prevalent among young people.
“There are many factors contributing to this challenge among young people. The first is lack of awareness because we still consider it one of the main concerns of young people.
“In addition, the law still resists young people accessing health centers when it comes to unwanted pregnancies.”
Furthermore, Ikuteyijo said there was a need to take sex education out of the clinic and make it an independent institution.
Youth-friendly sex education needs to be taken out of clinics due to stigma. The community would want to ask questions, but if it is an independent institution that anyone can come to, it will really help our young people.
“Sex education from home is very important but it must be presented in the right way. Osun State Government should also make sex education independent and present it to everyone without gender bias,” he added.
In his contributions, the Director of Public Health, Osun State Ministry of Health, Dr. Akeem Bello, said the state is working to ensure that youths are fully informed about sexual education.
Bello said: “We need to raise awareness and involve our people. That is part of what we are doing today. Research is part of raising awareness because many people do not know the implications of unsafe abortion. Sexual education is very important for our children.
“We have had a series of trainings and workshops for our health workers on how to prevent safe abortions and the steps to follow to perform safe abortions.
“After today’s workshop, we need to create more awareness, especially at the grassroots. We need to go to the communities and schools to focus on our teenagers to achieve our goals.”
A former Executive Secretary of the Osun Health Insurance Agency, Dr. Adeniyi Oginni, while speaking at the workshop, said one of the key solutions to unsafe abortions is to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
Oginni, Head of the Department of Public Health at Redeemer University, Ede, spoke about the need to enlighten and educate communities and teach them how to live a healthy lifestyle.
He said: “Basically, I am a preventive and social medicine person, and I believe more in prevention than cure. I would prefer to talk from the point of view of preventing unwanted pregnancies rather than talking about providing a safe abortion.
“Although there are some cases in which abortion is legal and medically indicated. We have criminal and medical abortions. I prefer that we prevent unsafe abortion by preventing unwanted pregnancies.
“We need to communicate, inform, enlighten and educate our communities and teach them how to live a healthy lifestyle. However, in the case of medical abortions, we need to teach them how to do it in standard hospitals and health facilities where we have trained staff.”
READ ALSO THE BEST STORIES FROM Newslodge