Mrs Charity Banye, Director at the Department of Gender in the Upper West Region has expressed concern on the excessive use of emergency contraceptive pills by most teenage girls in the Wa Municipality as permanent family planning method.

She said that wrongful use of the drug could have catastrophic effect on those who patronised it without recourse to professional advice from qualified health personnel.

“As its name suggests, it is an emergency pill that is taken after accidental sexual relations such as rape, defilement or unplanned acts to prevent unplanned pregnancies not a drug that is taken after every sexual act.

“Most teenage girls in the Wa Municipality abuse the drug instead of abstaining from sex or seeking permanent family planning solutions. This could pose threats to their health,” she warned.

Mrs Banye stated this at a teenage mothers’ leadership conference at Wa recently when she took her turn to address the participants on sexual education.

The Programme which was at the instance of the LifeAgain, a non-governmental organisation in the region brought together some 120 beneficiary teenage mothers of the organisation to share challenges, ideas and success stories after having received assistance from the NGO to continue with the life that was truncated by unplanned pregnancy and childbirth.

The Director stated that the best method for the girls to stay safe from sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies was to abstain from sexual relations and rather channel those energies wasted in unfruitful relationships to their studies.

“As the name indicates, it is a family planning method; what family are you planning at this age and with whom, that boy who hides behind the building on the blind side of your parents? You need to place more value on yourself and stay chaste”, she advised.

She stated that there had been instances where men had denied pregnancies because they claimed the ladies were given emergency pills but the ladies had to bear the responsibility of the child alone.

“Emergency contraceptive pills could interfere with your menstrual cycle and also cause other side effects which can affect your studies if you are a student or your entire day if you are engaged in other forms of activities”, she said.

She used the opportunity to appeal to the young ladies to take care of their bodies but not allow males dose them with emergency pills after sexual relations that could have been prevented.

The Wa Municipal Girl-Child Education Officer, Pognaa Amamata Mumuni lamented that pre-marital sex had become frequent among the young, particularly teenagers and appealed to them to stay away from such acts.

She stated that sex was the preserve of married couples which was created by God for a purpose in the marriage so it was unhealthy for young girls to participate in it when they were still dependent on their parents.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Organisation, Ms Saudatu Mohammed also appealed to beneficiaries of the programme put the help they had received from her her NGO to good use.

From Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Wa