Abstract : Although induced abortion is officially illegal in Mali except to save the life of the mother, abortion practitioners and patients are rarely prosecuted. Preliminary quantitative findings are presented of a Center for applied Research on Population and Development (CERPOD) study conducted in Bamako during 1995-96 on the social consequences of induced abortion. The quantitative component of the study explored the sociodemographic characteristics and the contraceptive and abortion histories of a random sample of reproductive health clinic clients in the nation's capital. First, a pre-test was conducted involving 999 randomly selected female patients from four family planning and prenatal clinics and one hospital-based gynecological care unit in the city. That pre-test was then followed by a full-scale survey of more than 3000 randomly-selected, ever-sexually-active female patients of three of the four clinics and the hospital unit upon their exit from a medical consultation. One in seven women in the study population had attempted an abortion and 14% were suffering from abortion-related complications at the time of the interview. Induced abortion was most frequently reported by women attending gynecological care consultations. Comprehensive findings are presented.
Source : Source Popline : http://db.jhuccp.org/popinform/basic.html - PIP 116047.