| Updated: 2:57 p.m.
A bill now before the state Legislature would compel Utah women seeking an abortion to watch an online course displaying “medically-accurate” images of the procedure and then attest under penalty of perjury that they’ve viewed the presentation from start to finish.
Completing this online module is already a mandatory step before an abortion in Utah although right-wing advocates argue the current informed process is too porous and believe women might be skimming over or skipping the course. But abortion rights groups see these new proposed restrictions as yet another episode in a long campaign to block access to pregnancy-ending procedures in Utah.
Under HB231, anyone who transports aborted or miscarried fetal remains outside of the state, or who arranges to do so, could face a class B misdemeanor. The bill would not apply to fetuses less than 20 weeks gestational age.
PPAG finds ‘cure’ for teenage pregnancies in Bolgatanga
The Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) says it has found what it considers a potent remedy for adolescent pregnancy and child marriage in Bolgatanga and it is implementing it in the Upper East regional capital.
The remedy supporting deprived girls to set up their own businesses was discovered as the PPAG interacted with some teenage girls at a session organised in the capital months ago. The meeting was part of a PPAG initiative dubbed “Child Marriage Project” and sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Subsequently, the PPAG organised a livelihood training that saw a number of adolescent girls as well as members of the Sisters’ Club, a local girls-only society established by the PPAG to reduce teenage pregnancy and child marriage rates, trained how to produce pastries as young entrepreneurs, market the products and fend for themselves with the proceeds realised.
Kayayes to undergo skills training in Tamale
Eleven selected kayayes will undergo skills training to create employment opportunities in their communities to improve their livelihood.
The beneficiaries are young girls who are working as kayayes in Accra and Kumasi to support their families.
At a durbar in Kakpagyili, a community in the Tamale Metropolis of the Northern region, the beneficiaries were presented with equipment and materials needed to start their training.
They would also be asked to venture into their preferred enterprises, including soap making, weaving, and beads making.
The gesture forms part of Livelihood Empowerment for Migrant Returnees, a pilot project, under the Healthy Cities for Adolescents (HCA) Project, being implemented by the Regional Institute of Population Studies (RIPS) of the University of Ghana.
PPAG organises livelihood empowerment training for 50 girls 14th Dec 2020 | Source: Ghanaian Times
Ms Beyuo (standing) and her facilitator addressing the girls
The Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) has organised a livelihood empowerment training in Wa for 50 girls drawn from four communities in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region.
The training sought to empower the young ladies against early and unprotected sex, unwanted pregnancies and sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) by providing them with skills that would enable them to earn a living and become independent of men who usually lured them into having early sex for money.
The training, which is one of several others for the girls who have been organised into a club called the ‘Sistas Club’, forms part of a three-year project dubbed the ‘United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) – PPAG Child Marriage Project.