Teenage pregnancy high in Tema

TODAY newspaper reported on Monday of a high rise in teenage pregnancy and early parenting in the Tema Manhean Community.

Investigations by the paper revealed that places like Awudum, Abonkor and Ashamang in the Tema Manhean Community were the most notable areas where teenage pregnancy and early parenting was very prevalent.

In the course of our findings it was observed that whereas some of the teenage girls were pregnant others were found carrying their children at their backs.

Many of the pregnant teenagers, the paper gathered, were without responsible fathers as the fathers of these children were nowhere to be found.

Some residents and inhabitants who spoke to TODAY expressed great displeasure about the situation, blaming it on the disobedience and disrespectful attitudes of the teenage girls who, according to them, refuse to take advice from elders and parents.

“The girls and ladies here are so disobedient: they would not listen to anything we tell them. My sister, they rarely take advice since they want to do things in their own way which obviously lead to what we are all witnessing here today,” an anonymous elderly resident of Awudum noted.

The paper further gathered from residents that some parents take pride in pregnancies of their teenage daughters. Thus, they encourage their young daughters to be pregnant in anticipation they would have more grandchildren to succeed them when they are dead and gone.

Others also stated that the curiosity and the desire of the teenagers to rub shoulders with their parents, especially mothers, cause them to exploit fellow teenage boys and older men.

“Some of them also mock barren married women with their pregnancies and children. They don’t care the consequences of child birth, but rather their main aim is to make fun of people who may have been properly married but for one reason or the other are not able to give birth”, Auntie Beatrice Dede told TODAY.

When the paper tried to speak with some of the teenage mothers, they were unwilling to comment on their conditions.

One teenage girl, who gave her name as Ayor, said “I am 15 years now and have 2 children; my first child is 2 years and some months old and the second one is 4 months old: I have no regrets at all for giving birth at this age.

Though the boy who is also about 16 years is not so reasonable and as a result is not able to provide for me and the children, my parents are doing so well, so why should I regret?

She was quick to add…“those who want wedding rings are going for them, those who want to be wedded are being wedded; so those of us who want babies, allow us to produce them.”

“The unfortunate thing is that these children are not properly cared for. Most of them end up being street children, thieves, drug addicts and so on,” another concerned resident, Nii Lantey Ashitey, lamented.