Mrs. Baaba Brew Fleischer, President of the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG), on Friday called on the government to make contraceptives and information available for women to negotiate for safe sex.
"Family planning is an essential public good just like immunisation and should be offered free", she said adding that family planning must be covered under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Mrs. Fleischer was speaking at the launch of an advocate strategy document developed by the PPAG and its partners on reproductive health
supplies in Ghana under the theme: "Its time we take charge." in Accra.
The eighty page book gives detail accounts of reproductive supply deficit in Ghana and strategies to address them.
She said government had made huge investment to deliver family planning and other reproductive health services but millions of women still failed to receive contraceptives and the information they needed to space births and
avoid unintended pregnancies.
"Unintended pregnancy help fuel Ghana's rate of population growth and its attendant problems," she said.
She noted that Ghana's recent demography and health survey found that 13 per cent adolescent had begun child bearing which was "a reflection of lack of quality family planning services to very important and needy section of the population."
She said major constraints existed in the family Planning Programme in Ghana.
According to her, commitment and support for family planning was not visible compared to other health issues and diseases.
"There is persistent gap between knowledge of family and use of contraceptives among a section of the populace and spatial difference in
contraceptive use exist between rural and urban women as well as the south and the three northern regions", she said.
She observed that family planning had been ignored as a Public Health Priority in Ghana and that because of that it was under-funded.
She noted that the Better Ghana agenda of the government would be difficult to realise without the availability of reproductive health supplies.
Dr. Koma Jeho-Appiah, Country director of Ipas Ghana, (an NGO that advocates the reproductive health of women) said unsafe abortion resulted in many deaths and because most Ghanaians claimed to be Christians they did not want to talk about it.
He said children were not introduced to sex education and that they learn through the harsh way which rather tend destroy most of them.
He said if "we continue to introduce sex to our young ones the same old way, the future of the country would be very bleak.
According to him, children did not know where to turn to in times of unwanted pregnancy and rather resort to quack doctors or fall on unorthodox means to abort leading to death or serious health complications.
Mr. Henry Martey, Newman Chief of Staff, said reproductive health played an important role in the development and growth of every country and that there was compelling evidence that improvement in maternal and child health could positively affect their lives.
He said it was the objective of government to reduce maternal mortality rate by improving access to services of trained midwives, access to basic and comprehensive emergency obstetric care and availability of blood.
He announced that a draft legislation had been drawn to standardise the 145 districts schemes to enable them enjoy same terms and benefits.
The Chief of Staff thanked the management of PPAG for complementing government efforts to improve the country's reproduction health situation.
He said many benefits could accrue from these efforts including the improvement in the quality of life and wellbeing of the ordinary Ghanaian.