No hospital no sex – Ghanaian women declare sex strike to demand for health facility

Andreas Kamasah 11:26 - 04 September 2019

Prevention is said to be better than cure, and that is the tangent the women of a rural Ghanaian community have chosen to avoid all the stress they always have to grapple with in attempts to access maternal healthcare.

The women in a farming community in Ghana called Ntenanko have declared sex strike to avoid getting pregnant for fear of not getting access to proper antenatal care.

Their hope is to starve their husbands of sex to compel them to demand the opening of the Community-based Health Planning and Service (CHPS) compound facility built in 2015, but has since not been put to use.

According to them, it is completely illogical to have such a crucial facility in the community while they still have to travel several kilometers to access maternal healthcare in other communities.

The CHPS compound built to serve about 10 communities is reportedly engulfed in bushes and some fittings on the facility have been stolen, while louvre blades have been broken.

Speaking to a local radio station Pure FM, one of the women said it is in their interest to abstain from sex in order to avoid getting pregnant.

“We are afraid to get pregnant because of the pains we go through. Even how to get a vehicle,” the woman is quoted as saying.

Well, the men of Ntenanko are bearing the brunt for governments’ inaction. The only option for them now is to do the legitimate bidding of the wives.

It is however not clear how united the Ntenanko women are in this endeavour, and how they intend to monitor if their sex strike is being observed by every woman.