Another account of a hospital abortion that took about an hour and a half involved a 

procedure where the girl was put to sleep. 

Before the abortion, I was made to go for a card. After the card, a nurse called me to her 

office and asked if my mother knew about the abortion. I said no and she took me to a 

room where I was given an injection. I fell asleep and when I woke up the act was 

completed. I was then told to go home. . . I was feeling very sick and weak. So my friend 

hired a taxi and we came home. I slept for hours and when I woke up I was fine.  

One girl spoke of the doctor pressing on her stomach during the procedure, after she had 

received an injection.  

Brother took me to [hospital]. I was made to lay down with my two legs apart. Then the 

doctor inserted some metal like tools in my womb and kept pressing my stomach. A few 

minutes later it was all over. . . When I was getting up, my abdomen hurt a lot. I could 

not stretch and stand upright, so I lay there for some time. When I felt better, then I left.  

6.2.2  Abortions in Hospital Staff Quarters 

The girls who did not have their abortions in the appropriate unit of the hospital, but in 

the staff residences, or  nurses' quarters,  as they were sometimes referred to, said that they went 

to the  big hospital  first and were then directed to the staff quarters, where the abortion 

procedure was performed. One participant explained it as follows: 

My mother arranged everything. We went to the big hospital and someone called the 

doctor for my mother. After talking with my mother for a while, we went to his house and 

he did it for me there. . . It was a doctor because he was called doctor. . . the operation 

was performed in his bedroom. [Diana] 

Another participant gave an account of the price negotiation for the cost before the 

procedure at the staff quarters. 

We went to [hospital], the place where they admit pregnant women, and those who do the 

family planning over there, and they took us to the quarters and we saw the doctor. . . He 

said the pregnancy was two months advanced, and that I would pay 70,000 [cedis] and I 

told him the money I had was not up to that, so we bargained for some time `til it came to 

60,000 [cedis], and he did it for me. [Wanda] 

There does not seem to be any obvious reason why some girls had their abortions in the 

quarters instead of the hospital except that perhaps the doctors negotiated a fee that would go 

directly to them and the other personnel who supported the procedure. None of the participants 

who went to the staff quarters mentioned making up a card before the procedure. 

Two participants said they were put to sleep and four said they were not. Again, a suction 

device was usually described as the tool used.  

54