Abstract

PIP: In 1972 the government of India liberalized the abortion law which is known as the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (MTPA). The new law, one of the most liberal in the world, accepts failure of contraception as a valid reason for abortion. The objective of this study is to gather data on the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of abortion acceptors after the MTP Act. The relevant data was collected from monthly statistics of women who underwent abortion from the 3 institutions carrying out the MTPA in Pondicherry State. The data was collected on the basis of complete census from these institutions for the 1972-1976 period. There is a marked increase in the number of abortion acceptors since the inception of the MTP Act: the total number of abortions in India in India increased from 24,138 during 1972-1973 to 182,171 during 1975-1976. An increase in the number of abortions was also observed in the case of Pondicherry State during the same period (126 to 807). In 1972 about 39% of the acceptors were from rural areas, but this increased to 65% in 1976. The demographic impact of abortion mostly depends upon the age and parity of women accepting abortion, i.e., higher the age and parity, lower the births averted per abortion and vice versa. As the majority of women accepting abortion belong to higher age groups and higher parity, the impact of abortion in reducing fertility is marginal. About 71% of the acceptors were literate; 88% were married. About 58% of the abortions were performed before 12 weeks and the remainder between 12-20 weeks. 65% of the abortion acceptors underwent sterilization at the time of the abortion in order to limit family size. Of the 1648 cases studied, 3 died after the abortion. Women with a larger number of female children were more favorable toward abortion as compared to those with more male children. About 73% of the abortions were performed for economic reasons. The majority of the acceptors belonged to the lower income strata of Indian society.