Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Aug 5;22(1):1497.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13912-4.

Examining the rural-urban divide in predisposing, enabling, and need factors of unsafe abortion in India using Andersen's behavioral model

Margubur Rahaman  1 , Puja Das  2 , Pradip Chouhan  2 , Kailash Chandra Das  3 , Avijit Roy  4   5 , Nanigopal Kapasia  6
Affiliations

Examining the rural-urban divide in predisposing, enabling, and need factors of unsafe abortion in India using Andersen's behavioral model

Margubur Rahaman et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: The prevalence of unsafe abortions significantly varies with geography; therefore, more research is needed to understand the rural-urban differences in unsafe abortion practices in India. The present study aims to explore the rural-urban differences in predisposing, enabling, and need factors of unsafe abortion in India.

Methods: The present study used the fourth round of the National Family Health Survey (2015-16) and included the women aged 15-49 who terminated pregnancies by induced abortion during the 5 years prior to the survey (N = 9113) as the study sample. Descriptive statistics, bivariate chi-square significance test and multivariate logistic regression model were used to accomplish the study objectives.

Results: The findings revealed that almost one-third of pregnancies were terminated through unsafe measures with sharp rural-urban contrast. The likelihood of unsafe abortions increases with decreasing women's age and spousal level of education. Younger women in urban settings were more vulnerable to unsafe abortion practices. In rural settings, women with an uneducated spouse are more likely to have unsafe abortions (OR: 1.92). Poor households were more likely to undergo unsafe abortions, which were more common in rural settings (OR: 1.26). The unmet need for family planning was revealed to be a significant need factor for unsafe abortion, particularly in rural settings.

Conclusion: Although abortion is legal, India's high estimated frequency of unsafe abortions reveals a serious public health issue. Due to socio-economic vulnerability, unmet family planning needs, and a lack of awareness, significant numbers of women still practice unsafe abortions in India.

Keywords: Andersen’s behavioral model; India; Rural-urban; Unsafe abortion.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Conceptual framework of factors of unsafe abortion using Anderson’s behavioural model [29, 30]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Grimes DA, Benson J, Singh S, Romero M, Ganatra B, Okonofua FE, Shah IH. Unsafe abortion: the preventable pandemic. Lancet. 2006;368(9550):1908–1919. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69481-6. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Singh S. Global consequences of unsafe abortion. Women Health. 2010;6(6):849–860. doi: 10.2217/WHE.10.70. - DOI - PubMed
    1. World Health Organisation . Unsafe abortion Global and regional estimates of the incidence of unsafe abortion and associated mortality in 2003. Geneva: WHO; 2007.
    1. Åhman E, Shah IH. Unsafe abortion: Global and regional estimates of the incidence of unsafe abortion and associated mortality in 2008. Geneva: WHO; 2011.
    1. World Health Organization . Reproductive health strategy to accelerate progress towards the attainment of international development goals and targets. Geneva: WHO; 2004. - PubMed