Knowledge and attitude towards Ghana’s abortion law: A cross-sectional study among female undergraduate students

Abstract

Ghana amended its abortion law to permit abortion under certain circumstances due to the impacts of unsafe abortion. Even though the abortion law in Ghana is liberal, most women do not utilize the services. Studies have shown that lack of knowledge and attitude towards abortion laws are the barriers deterring women from using safe abortion services. This study, therefore, assessed the knowledge and attitudes of future female health professionals towards Ghana’s abortion law. This was an institutional-based cross-sectional study among 240 female students undertaking undergraduate courses at the Fred Newton Binka School of Public Health (FNBSPH), the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), Ghana. Knowledge was measured with 9 items using yes or no responses while Attitude was measured using a five-point Likert scale with 14 items. Factors associated with poor knowledge among the students were determined using logistic regression. All analyses were done using STATA version 16.0. Of the 240 participants, 24 (10%) reported ever being pregnant. Among these pregnancies, 20 (83.3%) ended in abortions, with 15 (75%) of them unsafely done. The majority (53.3%) of the students knew the conditions under which abortion is allowed in Ghana and most (61.7%) of them had positive attitudes towards the abortion legislation in the country. The year of study (aOR: 0.06; 95%CI: 0.01–0.23), residential status (aOR: 0.44; 95%CI: 0.20–0.74) and poor attitude towards the abortion law (Aor:0.46; 95% CI: 0.26–0.82) were associated with poor abortion law knowledge among the students. This study has demonstrated that knowledge and attitude towards Ghana’s abortion legislation among the students was fairly good. Students’ year of study, residential status and attitude towards the abortion law were also found associated with poor knowledge of Ghana’s abortion law. Increasing young women’s knowledge of the abortion law may lead to more favourable attitudes towards abortion, improving the utilization of safe and legal abortion services.