Abortion care-seeking and reproductive rights violation in health facilities: evidence from six states of India

Abstract

Background: Unsafe abortion continues to draw the researcher's attention due to its close association with maternal morbidity and mortality. Empirical evidence on the role of health facilities in providing safe abortion care addressing the reproductive rights of Indian women is limited.Methods: Using data from the 2015 ‘unintended pregnancy and abortion in India’ study, the present paper aimed to understand the violation of the reproductive rights of abortion care seekers in health facilities (n=4001) in six states of India. The health facilities were sampled using a stratified random sampling strategy. Univariate and bivariate analysis was carried out using SPSS (V 25) on cleaned and weighted data.Results: A sizeable percentage of public and private health facilities across states found seeking the consent of the husband or family members before abortion provision, compel women to adopt contraception and turn away abortion seekers, commonly citing non-medical reasons. The provision of post-abortion complications services is usually not 24/7, even at the primary health centre level, hindering access to an urgent health care need.Conclusions: There is a need to improve access to facility-based abortion services, especially in underserved rural areas, by ensuring that all public-sector facilities have adequate equipment and supplies, including MMA drugs and trained providers. Sensitization of health care providers about the importance of ethical issues and women’s reproductive rights is urgently required to ensure safe, legal, and accessible abortion care.