My father's wife told me that if I ever got pregnant I should not have an abortion and that 

I should come and tell her. . . because if I have an abortion I may not be able to have 

children in future. [Charity] 

One participant explained why too many abortions cause infertility; she said, 

If you overdo it your womb the opening will become wide. 

Like contraception, abortion's effect on fertility was not viewed as a problem once 

women had enough children. 

Abortion can cause you not to have more children. It's okay if you already have a lot. 

[Candace] 

6.1.2  Sin or Necessity? 

Nearly all the participants said they believed that abortion was not a good thing. 

According to their statements, they thought that abortions are  not the best,   not good,  

 sinful,   dangerous,   can kill,  or can  make one sick  or  barren. 

7

 Yet, when asked in which 

situations abortion was acceptable, all but one participant used logic based on the pragmatism of 

raising a child to describe situations where abortion was acceptable and even necessary. These 

reports came from all the participants, not just those who had had an abortion. For example, 

Yolanda expressed the following strong antiabortion opinion.  

I think abortion is bad in every sense of it. The Bible even says that we should fill the 

earth. If you abort, then you may never be able to have any more children in the future. 

Secondly, you may lose respect from the man who made you pregnant and also you may 

die through the process if you are not lucky. . . So abortion is not part of God's 

commandments. It is bad. There is nothing good about it. If your parents were to be 

causing abortions, then some of us would not have been born. [Yolanda] 

When asked in what situations abortion was okay, she provided the following 

explanation: 

Abortions may be okay if the man refuses responsibility for the child. Also if there is no 

way one can look after the child. Then one can consider an abortion. [Yolanda] 

Referring to herself, another participant explained her reasons for having an abortion as 

follows: 

I think that if someone is in my position no job, no parents to help her then the person 

can consider abortion and, to me, that is okay. [Iris] 

7

 See Bleek (1981) for a description of the differences between public and private perceptions of abortion in Ghana, 

and Bleek and Asante Darko (1986). 

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