Abortion, Post Abortion Complication, and Treatment Seeking Behavior Among Women in India: Evidence From a Recent Large -Scale Survey

Chanda Maurya
Harihar Sahoo, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

The study on abortion among women is limited in Indian context mainly because of the stigma associated with abortion. Therefore this study attempts to find out the pattern of non-live birth, factors associated with abortion and place of abortion and post abortion complication and treatment seeking behavior of post-abortion complications in India. The study using the data from National Family Health Survey 4 and employing bi-variate and multivariate analysis found that one fourth of abortions happen in outside the health facilities. The prevalence of abortion is found to be higher among older, educated, richer and urban women. More than half of the abortion performed in private health facilities. The commonly mentioned reasons for not going for treatment for post abortion complication is that they can’t afford the treatment, husband did not give permission and social stigma, so the improvement in education and in the status of women should also be on priority.

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 Presented in Session 1. Fertility, Family Planning, Sexual Behavior, & Reproductive Health 1