Inayat H Thaver, Najma Lalji.
Seeking HELP for Abortion: Problems in accessibility and quality in family planning services.
J Coll Physicians Surg Pak Jan ;9(1):8-10.

In Family planning programmes seeking help for abortion has been projected as an indicator of `unmet needs`. In a situation where terminating pregnancy is illegal and not allowed in religion, it may be a surprise when women seek help for abortion through family planning clinics. This study was conducted on those women to identify the reasons for seeking help so as to determine whether this could be an indication of accessibility and problems in quality of FP care. A total of 93 such women were interviewed. The mean age of women was 29.7 years, 46.2% were illiterate; having a mean gravidity of 5.1. Interestingly, 59.1% were using some contraceptive before getting pregnant; at least half of them were using condoms. Of all the reasons perceived by women for getting pregnant, majority related to having problems with contraceptives usage. Almost half of the women wanted abortion due to reasons related to their or their baby`s health and limiting their family`s size. More than 1/3rd of women had tried some method for terminating the pregnancy and about a quarter had not even sought a formal permission from their husbands. It can be concluded that seeking help for abortion is not only an indication for `unmet needs` but also a reflection of the problems related to the practice and quality of FP programmes. It is recommended that scope of FP clinics should be widened to reproductive health centres so as to take care the health of women in toto. There is also an urgent need to address the issue of quality and increase in coverage of family planning services to combat the ever increasing threat for resorting to abortion.

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