ABSTRACT
Abortion continues to be a major public health issue that evokes social, political, legal, cultural and religious sentiments and debates in all societies. This is particularly so in countries with restrictive abortion laws. It is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality and morbidity. Despite variations in the legal status of abortions in favor of restrictiveness in developing countries compared with developed countries, overall rates are quite higher in the developing countries. This review article therefore, examines the historical perspectives of induced abortion as well as the issues and controversies associated with induced abortion. Also, a review of the Nigeria national abortion law is made. We believe that this is capable of identifying useful interventions for designing programs that will lead to a reduction in the burden of unsafe abortion in developing countries.
Subject(s)
Abortion, Induced/history , Abortion, Induced/legislation & jurisprudence , Health Policy , Black People , Female , History, 15th Century , History, 16th Century , History, 17th Century , History, 18th Century , History, 19th Century , History, Ancient , History, Medieval , Humans , Nigeria , Pregnancy , Public HealthABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Significant proportion of maternal deaths in Nigeria is due to complications of unsafe abortions, and these abortions are responses to unwanted pregnancies that could have been prevented by effective contraceptive programming. Despite intense programmatic efforts by the Nigerian government and various non-governmental agencies to reverse the trend, there has been little evidence to suggest a systematic improvement in these indicators. METHODOLOGY: A household random survey of 1,528 women aged between 15-49 years was undertaken at Amukpe community in Nigeria, to determine their knowledge, practice and perceptions of contraception. RESULTS: The results showed that 86.2% of the respondents had secondary or less level of education and 19.2% of the respondents were single parents. The level of contraceptive awareness was high (92.3%) and 88% of the respondents became aware of contraception in the last 14 years. Friends/relatives (40.6%), followed by nurses (31.7%) and then doctors (17.3%) were the common sources of contraceptive awareness. The most widely known contraceptive methods were injectables, condoms, POP and OCP. The specific knowledge of emergency contraception was poor. The factors associated with low contraceptive usage were poor level of training and ineffective conveyance of relevant information to clients by health personnel, low literacy levels, extremes of reproductive age and extremes of parity. Others were fear of side effects, lack of knowledge, and lack of spousal consent. CONCLUSION: Contraceptive usage remain poor despite high level of awareness. Effective educational and counseling interventions are likely to improve providers' and consumers' knowledge and subsequent uptake of contraceptive usage.
