Awearness Attitude of Reproductive Age Women about Ethiopian Abortion Law and Service Utilization. Lideta Sub City, Addis Ababa Ethiopia
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Date
2011-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Back ground: Maternal mortality caused by unsafe abortion is a critical public health problem and a quiet pandemic. Worldwide 22 million unsafe abortions occur annually which result in 68,000 deaths of women, moreover millions suffer permanent complications. Almost 97% of unsafe abortion took place in developing countries. Unsafe abortion contributes 10 % of maternal death in Ethiopia. Awareness on the law leads women to utilize safe services, but it is common to misperceive the particulars of the law, which lead women to unsafe abortion and financial abuse. The abortion law has been in place on the penal code for the last 10 years. Despite the formulation of the law, nothing is known about the awareness, attitude and service utilization by women of reproductive age in Lideta sub city.
Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the awareness, attitude of reproductive age women on the safe abortion law and abortion service utilization in Lideta sub city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Methods: Community based cross-sectional study design of quantitative & qualitative methods was conducted among 633 reproductive age women in three woredas of Lideta sub city by using a pre tested structured interviewer administered questionnaire. Multi stage cluster sampling method was used to select three woreda and ketena. Data were entered in to EPI info version 7.0, and STATA 12.1 statistical software for analysis. To see the association between independent and dependent variables bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used .Qualitative data was audio taped, transcribed, translated ,and by open cod soft ware coded and categorized then thematic analysis was done to get result .
Result: - 594 women participate and making the response rate of 93.8%. Generally 120 ((20.2%) participants have awareness on pre condition that permit legal abortion, and more than half, 323 (54.3 %) of the total 594 study participants were found to have negative attitude towards the law. being government employee [AOR 2.7 95% CI (1.2-6.2)], attaining technical level of schooling [AOR 3, 95% CI (1.5-6.0)] were significantly associate with women’s awareness on abortion law. Knowledge on complications of unsafe abortion [AOR 2.5, 95% CI (1.6-4.0)], awareness on Ethiopian abortion law [AOR 2.8, 95% CI (1.7-4.6)], attaining higher educational level [AOR 3.8, 95% CI (2.0-7.2)] were significantly associate with women’s attitude towards the
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law. Lacks of money, lack of awareness on the law and service availability, stigma were the major reasons raised by participants not to utilize abortion service by qualitative study.
Conclusion and recommendation: Awareness and positive attitude towards abortion law was low and women who were unaware about the law would not utilize abortion service. So that stake holders like Addis Ababa city administration health bureau, health extension professionals, health facility should work jointly to create awareness in the community
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Keywords
Maternal mortality, Unsafe Abortion