In summary, there was some controversy about whether clinic or herbal abortions were 

preferable, but the majority of girls obtained their abortions at clinics.  It was understood that too 

many abortions can be dangerous and can affect a girl's fertility. Most girls, whether they had 

had an abortion or not, said that abortion was morally wrong; however, they all cited practical 

reasons why it is acceptable for a girl to have an abortion. These reasons included the girl not 

having the means to care for the child and not having parents to help, the father being absent, or 

the girl being in school. The word for abortion in the languages spoken by girls connotes 

 murder  or  spilling blood  while the word  miscarriage  connotes a natural process. 

The participants used clinics and hospitals to terminate their pregnancies more than any 

other method. They were usually accompanied by a friend and sometimes by a female relative or 

a boyfriend. The boyfriends usually paid the clinic abortion fees, which ranged from 30,000 

cedis to 300,000 cedis, with an average cost of 90,000 to100,000 cedis. Girls whose boyfriends 

or husbands did not acknowledge the pregnancy and those who obtained abortions against their 

boyfriends' wishes paid for the procedure with their own money, money they got from parents or 

borrowed from friends, or some combination of these. A clinic abortion was sometimes preceded 

by failed attempts to terminate the pregnancy using home remedies, pharmaceuticals, or herbs 

bought in the market. In the experience of these girls, the vaginally inserted form of Aatsoo had 

been found to be an effective abortifacient with few side effects when used early in pregnancy; it 

usually costs less than 10,000 cedis. The participants experienced few complications from their 

clinic or herbal abortions and received little postabortion counseling after clinic abortions.  

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