Rates of Induced Abortion in Iran: The Roles of Contraceptive Use and Religiosity

Iran has experienced a dramatic decline in fertility in recent decades, but limited access to legal abortion continues to lead many women whose pregnancies are unwanted or mistimed to undergo clandestine, unsafe abortions. No official data on the abortion rate in Iran have been collected, however. T...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studies in family planning 2008-06, Vol.39 (2), p.111-122
Main Authors: Erfani, Amir, McQuillan, Kevin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abortion
Abortion, Induced - legislation & jurisprudence
Abortion, Induced - statistics & numerical data
Adolescent
Adult
Birth Control
Contraception
Contraception Behavior
Contraceptive methods
Demography
Estimation methods
Family Planning
Female
Female fertility
Fertility
Fertility rate
Fertility rates
Health Care Utilization
Health Policy
Health Surveys
Humans
Induced abortion
Iran
Legal status, laws, etc
Middle Aged
Pregnancy
Regression Analysis
Religion
Religiosity
Reproductive health
Statistics
Surveys
Women
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Summary:Iran has experienced a dramatic decline in fertility in recent decades, but limited access to legal abortion continues to lead many women whose pregnancies are unwanted or mistimed to undergo clandestine, unsafe abortions. No official data on the abortion rate in Iran have been collected, however. This study uses the 2000 Iran Demographic and Health Survey to estimate the abortion rate for the country as a whole and for specific regions, and to explore the role of contraceptive use and religiosity in explaining regional variations in abortion rates. We estimate the total abortion rate for the country to be 0.26 abortions per married woman, and the annual general abortion rate to be 7.5 abortions per 1,000 married women aged 15-49. We find that the negative effect of modern contraceptive use on the abortion rate is 51 percent greater than the negative effect of religiosity, and we highlight the implications of these findings for policies on reproductive health and family planning.
ISSN:0039-3665
1728-4465
DOI:10.1111/j.1728-4465.2008.00158.x