Abortion and Family Formation: Circumstance or Culture?

نویسنده

  • D. Paul Sullins
چکیده

Research using opinion surveys and abortion-patient censuses has found that opinion and practice on abortion often appear incongruent. This is generally attributed to circumstantial pressures that motivate women to make an atypical choice, conceived in terms of rational utility; but it may also be due to the fact that the socio-cultural values of women having abortions are not representative of their opinion group. Taking participation in marriage and family formation behavior as indicators of traditional cultural values, I examine fertility data from the National Survey of Family Growth (N=10,847) in order to determine whether women having abortions differ significantly in their opinions regarding such behaviors from those not having abortions. I find that women having abortions are twice as likely never to marry, 37% more likely to divorce, have (on average) twice as many lifetime sexual partners and three times as many partners before marriage, have fewer children, and experience both earlier sexual onset and later marriage. Having successive abortions or abortions on different pregnancies affects these differences not at all or only slightly. I argue that these differences suggest that abortion decisions stem in large part from diverse sociocultural values rather than from circumstantial

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Relationship of family formation characteristics with unsafe abortion: is it confounded by women’s socio-economic status? - A case–control study from Sri Lanka

BACKGROUND Literature shows that choice for unsafe abortion is often driven by poverty. However, factors related to the family formation behaviour of women are also implied as determinants of this decision. This study assessed which family formation characteristics of women are associated with the risk of unsafe abortion, without being confounded by their low socio-economic status among Sri Lan...

متن کامل

Isolation of Chlamydia spp. from Ewes and Does in Iran

Enzootic ovine abortion is caused by Chlamydia abortus and may result in abortion among small ruminants during the last 2-3 weeks of pregnancy. Enzootic abortion is diagnosed by isolation of the agent or detection of its nucleic acid in the products of abortion or vaginal excretions of freshly aborted females. Isolation of chlamydial agents in cell culture is the gold standard, so in the presen...

متن کامل

Improving induced abortion care in Scotland: enablers and constraints.

BACKGROUND Induced abortion is the most common gynaecological procedure in Scotland. Despite several recent initiatives to improve the quality of abortion care, inappropriate variations in care remain. OBJECTIVE To identify and explore factors that enable or constrain the provision of high-quality induced abortion care in Scotland. METHODS Interviews with a range of key informants with diff...

متن کامل

مسؤولیت ناشی از صدمه به حق عقیم‌سازی و سقط جنین معلول

One of patients΄ rights which are recognized in different countries such as Iran is right of decision about number of family members. This right may be enforced by using preventive medicine or other medical methods such as barring. If all of these preventive methods are recognized, the doctor will bind to perform his duty in satisfaction referring and non-performance will result in medical liab...

متن کامل

Attitude of Reproductive Age Women towards Factors Affecting Induced Abortion in Hamedan, Iran

Background & aim: Abortion is the third leading cause of maternal mortality. The attitude of women towards abortion is one of the most important factors involved in this issue. This study aimed to evaluate the attitude of women of reproductive age towards induced abortion. Methods This cross-sectional study was performed on 450 women of reproductive age in Fatemieh Hospital in Hamedan, Iran in ...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره   شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2003