Abstract : Findings are presented of the descriptive and exploratory research project "Social Determinants and Consequences of Induced Abortion in the Dominican Republic." 309 women of marginal social status treated for abortion complications in Santo Domingo's largest maternity hospital and 43 primarily working class women treated for abortion complications in a Santo Domingo social security hospital were interviewed in early 1992. Interviews in greater depth with 19 lower class and 13 middle class women who had had induced abortions supplemented the hospital data. Because of the reluctance of women to admit to having induced abortions, all the hospital abortions were assumed to be illegally induced, even though up to 25% might have been spontaneous. 18% of women treated for abortion but 25% of those delivering babies at the larger hospital were adolescents. The women interviewed were primarily young. 78% were in union, 84% had children, 83% had work experience, and 65% desired more children in the future. Neither occupational status nor educational level nor any of the other social determinants studied were significantly associated with reproductive behavior. In the absence of a strictly comparable population of nonaborting women, it is methodologically impossible to propose correlations between specific variables and behavior. Contraceptive usage appeared to be the most interesting study variable. Great contradictions were observed in the contraceptive usage and reproductive intentions of the women, who demonstrated interest in fertility regulation and who had considerable contraceptive experience. The prevailing pattern of contraceptive usage in the Dominican Republic combines late initiation with unsystematic use based on the expectation of early sterilization. Although high percentages of the women knew of contraceptive methods, the study data confirm that they lacked detailed knowledge of characteristics, correct use, and secondary effects of different methods. Two-thirds of women using contraception in the Dominican Republic are sterilized. The small proportion of women using reversible methods at any given time indicates that large population groups do not use contraception for spacing. Most of the women had a high degree of motivation to control their fertility, frustrated by deficient practice of contraception.
Notes : Español/espagnol/Spanish, nbsp;Abstract : Popline (http://db.jhuccp.org/popinform/basic.html) - PIP 100712