By Sorie Ibrahim Fofanah
The Communication Officer for the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC), Issabelah Mukutu has said there were ninety-one thousand abortions in Sierra Leone in 2021.
Mukutu was speaking in a one-day media advocacy capacity-strengthening workshop designed for journalists in Sierra Leone on how to report Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) issues organized by APHR at the Radisson Blu Hotel on the 30th of October 2023.
She said they had not uploaded the report online because they were working on a manuscript that would be published by the end of this year. The report is named “Abortion Incidence and Severity of Complications in Sierra Leone.”
She said they were working with the Ministry of Health, Good Mother Institute and Statistics Sierra Leone on post-abortion care incidents.
Speaking to Journalists after the training, the Head of the Advocacy Unit of APHRC, Grace Kibunja said the training would help the media practitioners better report sexual reproductive health issues including collecting data on SRHR that would help influence policies. “Report in a way that policymakers can make changes to policies that can affect people,” she added.
Kibunja stated that the project covers seven countries in Africa- Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia and Malawi. “So, it is a group of countries that were chosen: it does not mean that those countries have specific SRHR issues,” she maintained.
She expressed hope that journalists’ reporting on SRHR issues would be ‘’more accurate,’’ encouraging them to look for evidence. ”We have lots of data,” she added.
On the prevalence of SRHR issues on the African continent, Kibunja said they look at teenage pregnancy and safe abortion. “Before the study, there was a high prevalence of abortion and teenage pregnancy,” she emphasized, adding that there were no data at the time. But with their studies about SRHR, she said they inform decision-makers and policymakers about the number of teenage pregnancies and abortions. ”Even in countries where abortion and teenage are not legalized, people need to accept that these are the numbers on the ground,” she stated.
In his remarks, Kenneth Juma, Researcher at APHRC, said many women and children were dying as a result of maternal mortality in Sierra Leone some six years ago, but that the government has made efforts to reduce the numbers. “For any woman that dies as a result of pregnancy, that is a huge loss,” Juma stated.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (01/11/23)
