International Institute for Population Sciences
Deemed to be University (An Autonomous Organization of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India)

Induced abortion is a preventable source of maternal morbidity and mortality. However, little information was available about why abortions are practised across India. Therefore, this study aims to assess whether reasons for abortion differ by socio-demographic and economic characteristics of women and to identify key predictors of reasons for abortion in India. Information on women aged 15-49 years who had terminated their last pregnancy by induced abortion in the five years preceding the survey was gathered from the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), 2019-21. Multinomial logistic regression was used to check the adjusted effects of the predictor variables on the reasons for abortion. STATA/SE v16.0 was used for the data analysis with a 5% significance level. Three percent of the surveyed women reported that their last pregnancy ended in an abortion. There was socioeconomic, demographic and geographic variation in the reasons for abortion in India. Unintended pregnancies was the main reason for women having abortions, but some had abortions due to medical reasons and the undesired gender of the unborn child. Unintended pregnancies that end in abortion are strongly correlated with gestational age, method of abortion, place of abortion, number of surviving children, religion, place of residence, and region. Reducing unintended pregnancies will help reduce the number of abortions and improve women's health. Reduced induced abortions will further help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which include reducing maternal mortality, ensuring reproductive rights, and achieving universal access to sexual and reproductive health information, education, and services. Keywords: Abortion, reasons, unintended pregnancy, sex-selective, India