Abortion in Ghana is a crime with exceptions, and the exceptions are wider than most people in Ghana believe. This guide sets out what the law says. It is not medical advice: a doctor is the person to see, and the sooner the better.
The law
Section 58 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), as amended in 1985, makes it an offence to cause an abortion or miscarriage, punishable by up to 5 years in prison - and then sets out when it is not an offence.
An abortion is lawful when it is done by a registered medical practitioner in a government hospital, a registered private hospital or clinic, or a place approved for it, and:
- the pregnancy is the result of rape, defilement or incest, and the woman
- or, if she cannot decide, her next of kin or guardian - asks for it; or
- continuing the pregnancy would risk her life, or injure her physical or mental health, and she consents; or
- there is a substantial risk that the child would be born with, or later develop, a serious physical abnormality or disease.
Separately, section 67 protects medical treatment of a pregnant woman given in good faith and without negligence, even if it ends the pregnancy.
The mental health ground is part of the law, and a doctor decides whether it applies.
Getting safe care
The Ghana Health Service provides comprehensive abortion care within these grounds, and some registered private clinics do too. Start with:
- a doctor at a government hospital or polyclinic, or your own doctor;
- the family planning or reproductive health unit of a hospital.
Care after a miscarriage or after an unsafe abortion is always lawful, and always available. Go to a hospital at once with heavy bleeding, severe pain, fever or a foul-smelling discharge. Doctors treat the complication; they are there to save your life.
— Hospitals in Accra — Emergency numbers
The real danger
Unsafe abortion - by someone untrained, with herbs, or with tablets bought without a prescription from a seller who does not know what they are selling - is a major cause of maternal death in Ghana, as the Ghana Health Service has said, and it is where most of the harm is done (https://gna.org.gh/2022/03/lets-stop-victimising-persons-seeking-comprehensive-abortion-carehealth-directorate/). Many of the tablets sold on the street and online are fake or the wrong dose. A registered doctor or clinic is safer, and within the law’s grounds it is legal.
Confidentiality
Medical care is confidential, and a doctor or nurse treating you is there to treat you, whatever happened before you arrived.
If you need to talk to someone
- Rape or defilement: the police’s Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), through any police station.
- Counselling: a hospital’s social welfare or psychology unit.