Sources, Providers and Self-Reported Complications among Indian Women Seeking Induced Abortion: Evidence from the National Family Health Survey (2015–16)

Abstract

This article attempts to find types of sources and providers, and likelihood of self-reported complication among Indian women. Fifty-three percent of abortions are done at private health facilities. Only one in every 5 women went to public health facilities, and the rest did not go anywhere (27.5%). Doctors are the major abortion service providers (52.3%) in India. Eighteen percent of women who sought abortion reported some complication. Logit regression shows that complications were 1.8 times higher in the second-trimester than the first-trimester abortion. This study suggests for addressing the demand of abortion by accessing and improving services in public health system.

Keywords:

• Abortion
• sources
• providers
• complications
• India

Acknowledgement

The authors of this article acknowledge valuable comments and suggestions made by both the anonymous reviewers of the article. The authors thank to Dr. Ann Moore and Dr. Garima Dutta for strengthening the literature review and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.