Induced Abortion and Associated Factors in Health Facilities of Guraghe Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Unsafe abortion is one of the major medical and public health problems in developing countries including Ethiopia. However, there is a lack of up-to-date and reliable information on induced abortion distribution and its determinant factors in the country. This study was intended to assess induced abortion and associated factors in health facilities of Guraghe zone, Southern Ethiopia. Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted in eight health facilities in Guraghe zone. Client exit interview was conducted on 400 patients using a structured questionnaire. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with induced abortion. Out of 400 women, 75.5% responded that the current pregnancy that ended in abortion is unwanted. However, only 12.3% of the respondents have admitted interference to the current pregnancy. Having more than four pregnancies (AOR？=？4.28, CI: (1.24–14.71)), age of 30–34 years (AOR？=？0.15, CI: (0.04–0.55)), primary education (AOR？=？0.26, CI: (0.13–0.88)), and wanted pregnancy (AOR？=？0.44, CI: (0.14–0.65)) were found to have association with induced abortion. The study revealed high level of induced abortion which is underpinned by high magnitude of unwanted pregnancy. There is requirement for widespread expansion of increased access to high quality family planning service and post-abortion care. 1. Introduction World Health Organization (WHO) defines unsafe abortion as a procedure for terminating unwanted pregnancy either by people lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking minimal medical standards or both [1]. According to WHO, worldwide unsafe abortions were estimated to be 21.6 million, almost all in developing countries. Each year, throughout the world, approximately 210 million women became pregnant and around one in 10 pregnancies ends in an unsafe abortion. The estimated annual number of unsafe abortions in Sub-Saharan Africa is 5.5 million. Although unsafe abortions are preventable, they continue to pose undue risks to a woman’s health [2]. Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, announced in 2001, is an internationally agreed-upon imperative to reduce maternal mortality by 75% from its 1990 level by the year 2015. As a significant proportion of mortality is due to unsafe abortion, this goal probably cannot be met without specific and direct programmatic efforts to reduce the impact of unsafe abortion [3]. Unsafe abortion accounts for 13% of maternal deaths worldwide and as much as 25% in some countries [4]. Over 40% of the total deaths due to unsafe