Abortion Care Seeking and Reproductive Rights Violation in Health Facilities: Evidence From Six States of India

Manas Ranjan Pradhan
Chander Shekhar, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Manoj Alagarajan, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Harihar Sahoo, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Empirical evidence on the role of health facilities in providing safe abortion care addressing reproductive rights of Indian women is rare. The present paper using data from the 2015 ‘Unintended Pregnancy and Abortion in India’ study aims to understand the reproductive rights violation of abortion care seekers in health facilities (n=19634) in six states of India. The health facilities were sampled using a stratified random sampling strategy. Contrary to existing law, a sizable percentage of both public and private facilities across states found seeking the consent of the husband or family members before abortion provision, compels women to adopt contraception, and turn away abortion seekers commonly citing non-medical reasons. The provision of post-abortion complications services is usually not 24/7 even at the Primary Health Centre level, hindering access to an urgent health care need. Sensitization of health care providers on ethical issues and reproductive rights of women seems pertinent.

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 Presented in Session 10. Health and Fertility Consequences of Abortion Restrictions