Male partners and abortion decision-making in South-western Nigeria

Akanni I. Akinyemi, Obafemi Awolowo University
Alfred Adewuyi, Obafemi Awolowo University

This paper explores primary data to investigate male partners’ involvement in unsafe abortion decision making processes in South-Western Nigeria. Issues considered in unsafe abortion decision include reaction to the status of pregnancy as “unwanted”, suggestion of abortion to end pregnancy, recommendation of abortion methods, payment for abortion cost, and support for contraceptive use to prevent future occurrence of unwanted pregnancy. Data for the paper was generated from a longitudinal survey in south-western Nigeria, in which 71 women who had experienced abortion and 80 men whose female partner had experienced abortion were identified. Logistic regression model were used to correlate male partners’ characteristics to involvement at each stage of the abortion process. Age, income and educational level of male partners’ were statistical significant predictor variables in each stage of the abortion process.