Page 81 - IJPS-7-1

International Journal of Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Factors associated with contraception

and induced abortion among young

women in Nepal

Yagya B. Karki*
Population, Health and Development Group (PHD Group), Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Nepal

Abstract: This study analyzed data from the 2016 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey
(NDHS) supplemented by key indicators from several previous waves of NDHS to identify
the sociodemographic profiles of women aged 15 – 24 who were using contraceptive methods
and sought an abortion within 5 years before surveys. To augment the abortion analysis, field
monitoring data of the Gorkha Safe Abortion (GSA) project were also used. Results from
multivariable analyses show that women who ever gave a birth, who were from Province 1,
who were economically well-off, and who knew the legal status of abortion, were more likely
to practice contraception than their respective counterparts. Results, further, reveal that women
practicing traditional methods of family planning were more likely to have an abortion than
their counterparts not using any contraception. Women with two or more children ever born
ARTICLE INFO were more likely to have an abortion. Women from Karnali Province were most likely to have
an abortion. Rich women were most likely to have an abortion than poor women. Regarding safe
Received: March 10, 2022
Accepted: October 24, 2022 abortion, it is found that women living in the Tarai area were most likely to have a safe abortion
Published: November 9, 2022 than other geographic areas, due perhaps to family health services being more accessible in the
Tarai area. Although the analyses found no relationship between age and abortions, perhaps
*CORRESPONDING AUTHOR due to small sample, the GSA project data clearly indicate that women under age 20, and those
Yagya B. Karki, from Dalit community in particular, were more likely to seek an abortion than women aged
Population, Health and 20 – 24. One lesson learned from the GSA project is that the pay-off for increasing access to
Development Group (PHD safe abortion for hard-to-reach populations is high. To understand the complexity of sexual
Group), Lalitpur, Kathmandu, behaviors, contraceptive uses, and abortions among young women, more research using both
Nepal. qualitative and quantitative approaches are needed.
karkidryagya@gmail.com
Keywords: Youth; Adolescent; Contraception; Abortion; Safe abortion; Reproductive
CITATION
health; COVID-19 pandemic; Nepal
Karki, Y.B., (2021). Factors
associated with contraception
and induced abortion among 1. Introduction
young women in Nepal.
International Journal of Youth aged 15 – 24 make up 20% of Nepal’s population (United Nations, 2022a). Youth
Population Studies, 7(1):75-97. have a high unmet need for contraception, and this has declined very little in the past
doi: 10.18063/ijps.v7i1.291 20 years in Nepal from 40% in 1996 (Pradhan et al., 1997) to 33% in 2016 (MOH et al.,
2017). Globally, young women are more likely to access unsafe abortion due to stigma
Copyright: ©2022 Karki. This
is an Open-Access article (Yokoe et al., 2019). In developing countries, about 40% unsafe abortions occur among
distributed under the terms women under age 25 and about one in seven women who have unsafe abortions is under
of the Creative Commons 20 (PRB, 2005; Shah & Ahman, 2012). Nepal is among the top countries with highest
Attribution-Non-Commercial abortion rate (Singh et al., 2018).
4.0 International License
(http://creativecommons.org/ High and persistent unmet need for contraception among youth has important
licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting implications for reproductive health programming and planning. Youth who have unmet
all non-commercial use, needs for modern contraception are likely to take recourse to traditional methods of
distribution, and reproduction
in any medium, provided the contraception such as period or withdrawal methods and their effectiveness is very low.
original work is properly cited. At the same time, as unsafe abortion is common among the youth, it is likely that if unmet

International Journal of Population Studies | 2021, Volume 7, Issue 1 75