DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED IN GATHERING INF ORMATION ON ILLEGAL ABORTION OF WOMEN POPULATION

Any attempt to study the practice of illegal abortion faces the proble m of asking women about a delicate, sensitive issue that has many impl ications. This may make is difficult to obtain truthful information on the subject. Results related to methodological aspects are emphasized and their possible association with variables included in a cross-sec tional study carried out among 1.955 women, of 15 to 49 years of age i s analysed. The frequency and conditions under which induced abortion was performed in a region of S. Paulo State are investigated. The wome n were interviewed at home using a pre-tested, structured questionnair e. Most of the women interviewed declared they had never had an aborti on nor had they thought of having one, and four percent referred to ha ving had an induced abortion. However another 16.7 percent said that t hey had taken tea or medicine at least once to bring on their menses. In this group, most of the women who thought they were pregnant at tha t time said they had had never an abortion, in spite of having bled af ter drinking tea or medicine. The results lead to the conclusion that women tend no omit information on the practice of abortion when questi oned directly. This is especially true of those who use oral means to bring on their menses and who seemed not to consider this a way of ind ucing an abortion.