Ghana's Queen Mothers Hold Court on Abortion

By Emily Bowers, Women's eNews. Posted March 10, 2008.

KOFORIDUA, Ghana (WOMENSENEWS) -- When a Ghanaian queen mother calls for a durbar, it's a pretty safe bet most of the community will turn out.

The traditional gathering -- involving an afternoon of drumming, dancing, speeches and skits -- is used by everyone seeking publicity from campaigning politicians to well-meaning nongovernmental organizations.

These days they are also being used by traditional female leaders in Ghana's eastern region to send a message about safe abortions.

About once a month Nana Yaa Daani and a group of 20 other queen mothers from the region conduct regular public-health sessions in gatherings in towns and villages. Typical topics include the risks of teen pregnancy, safe sex practices with a special emphasis on abstinence when it comes to teens.

But lately a new topic is being added to the mix: the conditions under which women have a right to a safe and legal abortion.

Until last August, Daani, the head of female traditional leaders in her eastern Ghana municipality, was omitting the subject for the simple reason that she didn't have a grasp on the law in the West African nation.

Passed in 1985 it is one of the most liberal on the continent. It allows abortion in all cases of rape and incest and provides leeway for other circumstances. If a pregnancy will cause physical or mental stress on the woman, she can request an abortion from a government-recognized medical practitioner. Exactly how the stress would manifest isn't spelled out and there is nothing in the law that requires a woman to prove the potential stress. A woman can also have an abortion if there's a strong risk the child will later suffer from physical anomaly or disease.

In the Queen Mothers' Courts

Daani's attention to the law was drawn by a presentation made to her and other female leaders in August 2007 by staff members of Ipas, an international women's reproductive rights group based in Chapel Hill, N.C., that started operations in Ghana in 2006.

After the presentation Daani and other leaders began finding that the young women in their communities were certainly no better informed about their legal access to safe services.

"Many of them do not know they can go to a hospital," Daani said through a translator.

So far, Ipas is only working with this group of queens in the eastern region as part of a few pilot initiatives in the country.

In Ghana, abortion -- and any subject to do with sex -- can be considered taboo, says Koma Jehu-Appiah, country director of Ipas. While Ghana is one of Africa's more democratically progressive countries, traditional and religious culture exerts a conservative influence.

From a dark side room in the spare traditional palace of the New Juaben traditional area in the eastern city of Koforidua, Daani tells Women's eNews in her native Twi language she had no problems speaking openly about abortion once she realized the several circumstances that make it legal in her country.

Tackling Maternal Deaths

In 2007, Ipas and the Ghanaian government surveyed the staff of 90 health care facilities -- 485 women and 138 men -- to find out how able and willing they are to provide safe abortion services. It was part of a government initiative developed in 2006 called Reducing Maternal Morbidity and Mortality that provides for contraception and abortion care.

See more stories tagged with: ghana, abortion, reproductive justice, gender

Emily Bowers is a freelance journalist based in Accra, Ghana.

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