Twelve teachers from schools the girls attended were also interviewed during this phase. 

Classroom observation during life skill classes was also carried out during this second phase in 

all of the five schools visited. These classroom observations were performed to enable the 

investigators to assess the content of the schools' curricula on sexual and reproductive health.  

Phase 2 also involved a second set of interviews with the 29 girls.  

2.7.3 Phase 

3 

The major aims of the third phase of the study were to conduct in depth interviews with 

some modern and alternative health service providers and to complete the third set of interviews 

with the 29 participants. 

The third phase was beset by major setbacks. The research team spent a week trying to 

locate and interview providers of abortions in the Ga Mashi area. Although some members of the 

community identified them, when we approached these providers, they were not willing to be 

interviewed. All of the abortion providers we contacted denied having performed abortions. This 

may be because, during the third phase of the study, the community seemed to become highly 

sensitized to the issue of unwanted teenage pregnancies because of our frequent visits to certain 

members of the community. Most of those performing abortions were not ready to talk to us; 

they were either afraid or thought we were from the police. The one person who performed 

abortions who agreed to be interviewed evaded our questions.  

The third phase also required numerous callbacks on the 29 girls we had interviewed 

during the first two phases of the study.  

2.8  

Demographic Characteristics of Case Study Participants 

 Twenty nine 

adolescent 

girls 

and youth age 15 to 24 who had been pregnant in the last 

year and a half and who had experienced an unintended pregnancy between the ages of 13 and 

19 were recruited as participants. The sample may be divided into two groups: the 15  to 19 

year olds, who are strictly adolescent girls, and the 20  to 24 year olds, who may be described 

more appropriately as  youths  but who had experienced pregnancy and abortion as adolescent 

girls. Thirteen of the girls were between the ages of 15 and 19, and 16 were between the ages of 

20 and 24 at the time of the interviews.  

The collective pregnancy experience of the girls was substantial. All of the participants 

had had at least one pregnancy, 18 participants had experienced two or more pregnancies 

between the ages of 13 and 19, and 9 participants had experienced three to seven pregnancies.  

10