ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights some of the salient issues that emerge from the eight qualitative studies on induced abortion along with the multi-centric study of informal providers of abortion. In India, abortion is permitted up to 20 weeks of pregnancy without any need for spousal consent. The most common reason for seeking abortion among married women was limiting family size. Incomplete information about contraception is a major factor affecting its use. While many women admit that condoms are the safest method of contraception, husbands are not particularly enthusiastic about using them. Though most studies did not tackle the topic of sex-selective abortion directly, it is clear that in some study areas couples and their extended families chose abortion to not only limit family size but also to achieve the desired sex composition of children. Poverty, as a reason for seeking abortion, crops up both in the two Tamil Nadu studies and the study based in Karnataka.
