Characteristics of first trimester abortion patients at an urban Indian clinic.

Of the 5,918 clients undergoing early abortions at a subsidized, widely advertised clinic in New Delhi, India, in 1980 and 1981, an unexpectedly high percentage were both young and nulliparous. An estimated 85 percent were married and the mean gestation period was six to eight weeks. Another significant characteristic of these women was the small percentage of single-para patients relative to both the nulliparous and the two-parity patients; 35 percent had no children, 19 percent had one child, and 27 percent had two children. Only 20 percent had more than two children. Newspaper ads attracted about two-thirds of the abortion clients.