Knowledge and Opinions About Abortion Law Among Mexican Youth

Volume 28, Number 4, December 2002 In Latin America and the Caribbean, more than 95% of induced abortions are performed illegally, often in unsafe conditions.*1 Unsafe abortions occur at a higher rate in this region than in any other region in the world: Each year, 30 of every 1,000 women of reproductive age in Latin America and the Caribbean have an unsafe abortion, compared with 27 per 1,000 in Africa, 11 per 1,000 in Asia (excluding Japan) and five per 1,000 in Europe. Complications from unsafe abortion lead to about onefifth of all maternal deaths.2 Even when safe, legal abortion services are available, women who lack accurate information about the relevant laws may seek unsafe abortions because they do not know they are eligible for the service or do not know the legal requirements for obtaining an abortion.3 Research in several countries has found that public knowledge about abortion law is often minimal and that subgroups of the population have tremendously varying levels of information.4 Public opinion can also directly affect access to safe abortion services. In communities where the prevalent attitude toward abortion is conservative, medical providers may be unwilling to perform abortions, and spouses or other family members may forbid a woman to seek an abortion if they hold strong negative opinions about the practice.5 Conservative opinion may also influence women’s own views. Women seeking induced abortion may feel guilty about doing so and consider themselves deserving of punishment. These feelings may lead them to seek clandestine, unsafe services rather than legal, safe ones. If complications result, women may delay seeking assistance. In this article, we use data from a nationally representative sample of young people in Mexico, where every state’s law permits abortion in some circumstances, to study two largely neglected factors in the problem of unsafe abortion that have important implications for abortion services: public knowledge of abortion laws and public opinion about abortion.