BackgroundThere is significantly high contraceptive knowledge in South Africa, but the uptake of contraceptives is average to low with resultant soaring of unplanned pregnancy and rising statistics of termination of pregnancy (TOP) services. This study aimed to establish the contraceptive practices among women in the South African population seeking TOP in one public hospital in Eastern Cape, South Africa.MethodsA cross-sectional study was carried out among women seeking TOP in a women’s clinic. Self-administered questionnaires were used as data collection tool, and the data collected were entered into SPSS software for analysis, using descriptive statistics to calculate frequencies and percentages while chi-square test was used to determine the associations between the socio-demography and contraceptive practices of the participants.ResultsMajority of the women were aged between 20 and 29 years, had secondary education, unemployed, single and resided in townships. Contraceptive uptake prior to termination of pregnancy (CTOP) among them was 44.1%, but 85.8% had good contraceptives knowledge. Their contraceptive practices are determined by partner’s opinion, source and availability of contraceptives, previous CTOP, side effect of contraceptives and having children. Age group, educational level and employment status were found to be related to the contraceptive practices of the participants but were not statistically significant.ConclusionTo reduce unplanned pregnancies and subsequent number of women seeking CTOP, the socio-economic factors associated with contraceptive practices as well as the programmes, policies and guidelines of contraceptives need to be improved on for any improvement on the factors determining contraceptive practices.

This work was carried out in collaboration between all authors. Author EOO did the study design and wrote the protocol. Authors YAK and BAO did the statistical analysis and literature searches while an analysis of study was by authors OOG and MRA. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.