The Sekondi Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly has recorded 1,700 teenage pregnancies between 2019 and 2021.

The period also saw 240 teenage abortions, Dr Kofi Sutherland, the Metropolitan Director of Health, has said.

The year 2019 recorded 538 pregnancies with 79 abortions, 2020 had 564 with 84 abortions, while 2021 recorded 522 cases with 81 abortions.

In a speech delivered on his behalf during a stakeholders' engagement, Dr Sutherland attributed the figures to lack of information and education on reproductive health rights, inadequate access to services, financial constraints and or pressure into unprepared marriages.

He said it was against that background that the Twin-Cities in Sustainable Partnership Project had designed a component to help address those challenges through the reproductive health kiosks to bring relevant information closer to the people, especially the youth, to avoid unwanted pregnancies and related abortions.

The Twin-Cities in Sustainable Partnership Project is a three-year initiative being implemented in Sekondi-Takoradi (Ghana) and Palermo (Italy), funded by the European Union to promote a Sustainable and Integrated Urban Development in the cities.

Mr Isaac Aidoo, the Coordinator of the Project, said it sought to provide a platform for stakeholders to design strategies and interventions to support the victims and protect and preserve children and the youth for the future.