It is well recognised that unsafe abortions have significant implications for women's physical health; however, women's perceptions and experiences with abortion-related stigma and disclosure about abortion are not well understood. This paper examines the presence and intensity of abortion stigma in five countries, and seeks to understand how stigma is perceived and experienced by women who terminate an unintended pregnancy and influences her subsequent disclosure behaviours. The paper is based upon focus groups and semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with women and men in Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru and the United States (USA) in 2006. The stigma of abortion was perceived similarly in both legally liberal and restrictive settings although it was more evident in countries where abortion is highly restricted. Personal accounts of experienced stigma were limited, although participants cited numerous social consequences of having an abortion. Abortion-related stigma played an important role in disclosure of individual abortion behaviour.

Although Ghana's abortion law is fairly liberal, unsafe abortion and its consequences remain among the largest contributors to maternal mortality in the country. This study analyzes data from the 2007 Ghana Maternal Health Survey to identify the sociodemographic profiles of women who seek to induce abortion and those who are able to obtain safe abortion services. We hypothesize that women who have access to safe abortion will not be distributed randomly across different social groups in Ghana; rather, access will be influenced by social and economic factors. The results confirm this hypothesis and reveal that the women who are most vulnerable to unsafe abortions are younger, poorer, and lack partner support. The study concludes with policy recommendations for improving access to safe abortion for all subgroups of women, especially the most vulnerable.

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study in Mexico that it is often sold on a pill by pill basis, which may explain the drop in sales. 22 The present study provides new national and regional estimates for 2006. It uses the same methodology as the 1990 study, but adapts those methods when necessarymost importantly by incorporating the use of misoprostol to induce abortion, a practice that was rare in the earlier survey period. This approach provides for comparability, and enables us to assess trends in induced abortion in Mexico over the past decade and a half. In addition to looking at changes in abortion incidence between 1990 and 2006, we examine patterns in hospitalization due to abortion-related complications, a key indicator of morbidity resulting from unsafe abortion. Finally, we explore the relationship between contraceptive use and differences in abortion incidence among the four regions and at the national level, and discuss the broader relevance and implications of our findings. DATA AND METHODS Data SourcesWe used two data sources for estimating abortion incidence: hospital discharge data on the number of women treated for abortion complications in 2006, and a survey of key informants who were knowledgeable about abortion provision in Mexico to obtain an estimate of the proportion of women who get abortions who are hospitalized.•Hospital discharge data. Data from Mexico's National System of Health Information (Sistema Nacional de Información en Salud) on the number of women treated in publicsector hospitals for abortion complications in 2006 were aggregated for seven hospital systems (see Web site Appendix at http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/ifpp/appendix/ 3404.pdf). 27 We examined the data for quality and completeness and to ensure comparability with data for 1990. To obtain a count of patients treated for postabortion complications in 2006 that was comparable to the count used in 1990, we selected the appropriate diagnostic codes from the new ICD-10 classification system that matched those from the earlier ICD-9 system. The previous study had made other adjustments to the hospital discharge data to account for misclassification of codes; 16 because the 2006 data are of higher quality, these adjustments were not necessary.The sources of health systems data on hospital care changed between 1990 and 2006: In 2006, the number of women hospitalized for abortion complications was obtained from three sources (outpatient, inpatient and emergency cases), whereas a single source was used in 1990 (only inpatient cases were available at that time). The total number of women treated for abortion complications (resulting from spontaneous or induced abortion) in all components of the public-sector hospital system in 2006 was 194,774 (112,978 reported inpatients, 26,823 reported outpatients and 54,973 estimated emergency cases; see Appendix Table 1).•Health Professionals Survey. The Health Professionals Survey (HPS) was designed to assess the conditions of induced abortions; given the rise in use of contraceptives since the 1980s and the increase ...

BackgroundWorldwide, the importance of contraception to control fertility has been recognized. A useful indicator of the gap between reproductive preferences and the provision of contraception is “unmet need for contraception”. The aims of this paper are to estimate the levels of unmet need for contraception among married and single women, and to explore factors associated with unmet need for contraception for spacing and limiting births in Mexico.MethodsWe used the Mexican National Survey of Demographic Dynamics 2014, using a sub-sample of 56,797 sexually active women aged 15–49 years who were either currently in union or who had never been in union to estimate the prevalence of unmet need for spacing and limiting births. We applied multivariable binary logistic regressions to examine the relationship between unmet need for spacing and limiting considering associated factors.ResultsUnmet need for contraception was estimated at 11.5% among women in union (6.4% limiting; 5.1% spacing), and 28.9% for women never in union (8% limiting; 20.9% spacing). In the logistic regression for unmet need for spacing, the likelihood was statistically significant associated with younger women (OR = 6.8; CI = 2.95–15.48); women never in union (OR = 1.6; CI = 1.40–1.79); low levels of education (OR = 1.4; CI = 1.26–1.56); and residing in poor regions (OR = 1.9; CI = 1.52–2.49). Those with full access to public services were significantly less likely to have unmet need for spacing (OR = 0.8; CI = 0.66–0.88).In the logistic regression for unmet need for limiting, being younger (OR = 6.3; CI = 4.73–8.27), never in union and sexually active (OR = 3.0; CI = 2.47–3.54); with less schooling (OR 1.13; CI: 1.02–1.26); rural residence (OR = 1.2; CI = 1.07–1.32); and residing in poor regions (OR = 1.5; CI = 1.23–1.93) were factors positively associated with this unmet need. Women with private health services were the least likely to have unmet need for limiting (OR = 0.5; CI = 0.37–0.77).ConclusionsYounger women currently in union and never in union had the highest unmet needs of contraception for spacing and limiting. The results from this study suggest that in Mexico family planning services must prioritize the contraception needs of all young women, both in union and not in union, with appropriate and suitable services to cover their needs.