Backstreet abortion: women's experiences.

AIM

This was a descriptive study aimed at exploring the personal experiences of women who induce abortion and the circumstances surrounding induced abortion.

METHODS

The study was conducted in six public hospitals in four different provinces: Baragwanath (Gauteng), Groote Schuur and Tygerberg (Western Cape), King Edward and R.K. Khan (Kwa-Zulu/Natal) and Livingstone (Eastern Cape). In-depth interviews were conducted with 25 African, Indian and Coloured women admitted to the hospitals following backstreet abortions. The study gave women the opportunity to "speak for themselves" about "why" and "how" and the context in which the unsafe induced abortions occurred.

RESULTS

The findings show that a host of factors were important in the circumstances leading to unwanted pregnancy and induced abortion: socio-economic, cultural, psychological and societal. Disempowerment in relationships combined with financial pressures constituted the background as to why women felt forced to terminate their pregnancies. The perceived need for termination was found to over-ride all other considerations, including religious ones. The ways in which women attempted to procure abortion, both through legal and illegal routes, are presented. Wider social and legal discourses an abortion were found to be an important factor in how women experienced their situation.