Abstract
In this study, the author examined the effect of family size preference and sex composition of living children as determinants of induced abortion among women in India by analyzing 90,303 ever-married women aged 15–49, included in India's second National Family Health Survey, conducted in 1998–99. Multivariate logistic regression methods were used to examine the association between induced abortion and possible determinants. The results indicated that a woman's desire to limit family size with preferred sex composition of children, coupled with her autonomy and the sociocultural context, largely determines her experience of induced abortion in India.
Acknowledgments
This article was presented as a poster at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America (PAA), Dallas, Texas, April 15–17, 2010. The author thanks Vinod Mishra, Sarah Bradley, and Praween Agrawal for their invaluable comments. Financial support was provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); fellowship support was provided through the MEASURE DHS project at Macro International Inc.