Social networks and their impact on decisions to terminate early pregnancies: evidence from India

Paramita Dutta, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Subrata Lahiri, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

A significant proportion of women die due to post abortion complications in every year in India. One of the major reasons of post abortion complication was delay in decision taking as well as delay in termination of foetus. Here major thrush of the study is to examine the impact of social network on gestational duration at termination of pregnancy. The study is based on primary data collected from women seeking MTP or obtained MTP services in three medical health facilities in Kolkata city during the October to December 2003. The total sample size was 240. The mean duration at termination of pregnancy among the women was 9.44 weeks, and nearly 18 percent women term their pregnancy at their second trimester of pregnancy. After controlling the effects of other variables, it has been noticed from MCA that women having less than three network partners go for abortion at their second trimester.