The sociodemographic characteristics of abortion seekers and the reasons they give for procuring termination were studied in 356 clients selected from two abortion clinics in the city of Colombo. Nearly 80% were Buddhists and about 10% were Christians. Almost all had some formal education but only 20% were employed outside the home. Over 95% were currently married and at the peak of their childbearing age. More than one-half were aged 30 years or over, while adolescents only constituted about 3%. Fourteen per cent were nulliparous and about two-thirds had one or two living @entity1 at the time of obtaining the abortion. A significantly high proportion also had a very young @entity1 . In total, the 356 @entity1 had had 1130 pregnancies, and the mean rate of abortion was 42 per 100 pregnancies. Over one-quarter had had more than one abortion and about 10% had had three or more. Almost all abortions were performed within the first trimester with a mean gestation period of 6 weeks. About one-third of the clients were using some method of contraception at the time they became pregnant. The most common reasons cited for the present abortion were 'pregnancy too soon after previous delivery', 'no more @entity1 desired' or 'curtailment of opportunity for foreign employment'. Unmarried @entity1 constitute a special group of abortion seekers who have different needs and behave differently from married @entity1 . Their needs are not currently being met by reproductive health programmes in @entity3595 Lanka, and it is important that they should be given special attention in the future. An interesting finding is that a significant minority of the abortion seekers answered negatively to the question regarding providing medical facilities for abortions without difficulty. This underscores the ambivalence many @entity1 have to abortion.

Induced abortion in XXXX Lanka: who goes to providers for pregnancy termination?

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['women', 'children', 'people', 'child'] @entity3595 :: ('6717', 'Gene') :: ['Sri']
@entity3595 :: (6717,Gene) :: ['Sri']
