DETERMINANTS OF INDUCED-ABORTION AMONG PO OR WOMEN ADMITTED TO HOSPITALS IN LOCALITY OF THE REGION, NORTHEAST BRAZIL

In Brazil, abortion is legally allowed only when it is necessary to sa ve a woman's life or when pregnancy has occurred following rape. Despi te this law, iduced abortion is widely carried out. This study present s the findings as to the determinants of 2,084 abortions admitted to t wo major obstetric hospitals in Fortaleza, Brazil, between October 199 2 and September 1993. Most of these women (2,074) have admitted an att empt to terminate pregnancy and 10 women were classified as induced ab ortion cases based on the findings of signs of intervention such as ce rvical laceration perforation or foreign bodies in the vagina or uteru s. The study findings indicate that self-administration of medicines p lays an important role in terminating pregnancy. Among the 2,074 women who admitted to terminating the pregnancy 66% reported using misopros tol to induce abortion. Misoprostol, a prostaglandin EI analogue indic ated for ulcer treatment, has been widely used as an abortifacient by women in Brazil. Misoprostol has some uterine effects but it is not ef fective in inducing abortion. Among women who were hospitalized for co mplications resulting from abortion about 59.7% were 20 to 29 years ol d and 22.6% were aged less than 20. The majority of the women (91.6%) were Catholic and only 4.3% were illiterate. About 62% of the abortion cases lived alone or did not have a stable partner. Most of the women (59.2%) reported less than 2 live births and 11.8% had experienced a previous abortion; 61.1% of the women were not using a contraceptive m ethod al the time of conception. The main reasons for this were ''fear of side effects'', ''did not expect to have sexual intercourse'' and ''did nor expect to get pregnant''. The authors suggest that the situa tion of a high rate of self-inflicted abortion may be changed by the a pplication of an appropriate contraceptive and reproductive health pro gramme.