Induced abortion and contraception use: among immigrant and Canadian-born women in Calgary, Alta

Abstract

Objective: To determine what proportion of women seeking induced abortion in the Calgary census metropolitan area were immigrants.

Design: For 2 months, eligible women were asked to complete a questionnaire. Women who refused were asked to provide their country of birth (COB) to assess for selection bias.

Setting: Two abortion clinics in Calgary, Alta.

Participants: Women presenting at or less than 15 weeks' gestational age for induced abortion for maternal indications.

Main outcome measures: The primary outcome was the proportion of women seeking induced abortion services who were immigrants. Secondary outcomes compared socioeconomic characteristics and contraception use between immigrant and Canadian-born women.

Results: A total of 752 women either completed a questionnaire (78.6%) or provided their COB (21.4%). Overall, 28.9% of women living in the Calgary census metropolitan area who completed the questionnaire were immigrants, less than the 31.2% background proportion of immigrant women of childbearing age. However, 46.0% of women who provided only COB were immigrants. When these data were combined, 34.2% of women presenting for induced abortion identified as immigrant, a proportion not significantly different from the background proportion (P = .127). Immigrant women presenting for induced abortion tended to be older, more educated, married with children, and have increased parity. They were similar to Canadian-born women in number of previous abortions, income status, and employment status.

Conclusion: This study suggests that immigrant women in Calgary are not presenting for induced abortion in disproportionately higher numbers, which differs from existing European literature. This is likely owing to differing socioeconomic characteristics among the immigrant women in our study from what have been previously described in the literature (typically lower socioeconomic status). Much still needs to be explored with regard to factors influencing the use of abortion services by immigrant women.

Figure 1.

Study population COB—country of birth. ^*All women presenting to the Kensington Clinic (n=965) and Peter Lougheed Centre (n=360) during the study period. ^†Population remaining after the exclusion criteria were applied. ^‡Women who supplied their COB and age but did not fill out the questionnaire. ^§Women who completed or partially completed the questionnaire, including their COB. ^‖Participant questionnaires that had sufficient demographic data to perform our analysis.