India: Cirumstances and motivations for seeking abortions

This population-based group comparison study was undertaken to study the circumstances, motivations and influencing factors for seeking abortion among women in Chandrapur District of Maharashtra.

Participants of the study included 500 cases of induced abortion and the equal number of normal delivered women during the same period and in the same area as comparison group.

Family and domestic problems, poor socio-economic status, short inter-pregnancy interval and completed family size were some of the important reasons quoted by study subjects for not desiring to continue the current pregnancy. The majority of the subjects felt that the decision to terminate or keep pregnancy is usually taken jointly by both the husband and wife. Only 1.80% of the cases reported failure of contraceptive method as a cause of seeking abortion services.

In 78.4% of abortion cases as compared to 5.4% subjects from the comparison group, pregnancy was unplanned.

Preventive and Social Medicine, Govt. Medical College, Nagpur, Maharashtra. Email:

Circumstances and motivations for seeking abortions: a community based study in Chandrapur District, Maharashtra. Zodpey SP, Ughade SN, Deshpande SG, Deo PR, Satyanarayan A, Mandvekar RR. Indian Journal of Public Health. 2007 Jan-Mar;51(1):70-2.