CURRENT CHARACTERISTICS ASSOCIATED WITH T HE HISTORY OF INDUCED-ABORTION

For the purpose of analysing the association between selected current socio-demographic characteristics and the history of induced abortion, 138 students of a Brazilian university, who had been pregnant at leas t once, were studied. These students were identified from among the 93 7 who returned, by mail, a self-administered, anonimous questionnaire distributed to all the femele undergraduates. The subjects were divide d into two groups, those who had and those who did not have a history of induced abortion. It was found that the largest percentage of women who had already had an induced abortion were of less than 24 years of age, were not living in marital union, had no religious affiliation a nd no living children at the time of the study. Analysis by logistic r egression showed that having no living children was the only current c haracteristic associated with having had an induced abortion.