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Teenage girls have been cautioned to avoid pre-marital sex to protect themselves from teenage pregnancies, cervical cancer and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs). Madam Mercy Sarkodie-Addo, Midwife in-charge of Forikrom Health Centre in the Techiman Municipality gave the caution at a day�s forum on Adolescent Health Reproductive (AHR) issues at Nkoranza in the Brong-Ahafo Region. The forum, organized by the Nkoranza Municipal Assembly was attended by more than 200 young girls and teenagers comprising hairdressers, dressmakers and members of youth clubs, a greater number of whom were apprentices in the Nkoranza Municipality. She cautioned women on unsafe abortion, saying a number of girls died annually through that. She therefore advised that any girl who would become pregnant should not attempt an abortion but should carry the pregnancy through term, ensuring that they visited the antenatal and post-natal clinics to save their lives and that of the unborn babies. Madam Sarkodie-Addo implored any unmarried person, particular the youth who could not abstain from sexual practices to stick to family planning methods to prevent unwanted pregnancies and added that the use of condoms would also protect them from contracting STDs. The Techiman Municipal Co-ordinator of the National Youth Authority (NYA) Mr Kwame Adu-Sarkodie enjoined the apprentices to exhibit a high sense of discipline for proper training and acquisition of requisite skills to become self-employed. Mr Adu-Sarkodie also stressed the need for parents who enroll their children to learn trades and vocations to visit them at their work places periodically as morale booster for the children and their masters. He said learning a trade or vocation could be likened to the youth who would also pursue their education as both of them would in the end acquire professional skills for employment to earn a living. Madam Stella Amoatemaa, Nkoranza Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) expressed gratitude to the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom Agency for International Development (UKAID), sponsors of the forum for assisting Ghana to launch the ARH Project. Earlier in the day, Mr Victor Appiah-Kubi, the Nkoranza Municipal Co-ordinator of the National Youth Authority (NYA) led the participants through the principal streets of Nkoranza amidst brass band music to precede the programme. They carried placards some of which read �Adolescents are our future�, �No marriage, No sex�, �Abortion can kill�, �Give the child sex education� and �Abstain from pre-marital sexual practices�.