Abortions followed by contraceptive failures in Northern India: an analysis of contraceptive histories (2009–2014)

Abstract

This study tries to elicit the unexplored nexus between the contraceptive failure and abortions in India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh. Condom being the most used modern method contributes to 47% of all observed episodes in the calendar period. Of all accidental pregnancies occurred because of modern contraceptive failures, 35.2% terminated with induced abortions. Gross failure rate of modern methods is conspicuously higher for urban poor, uneducated women, and marginalized section of population living in urban area. From a total of 7496 episodes of all reversible methods, abortions are estimated as high as 29.2%, whereas for the traditional method it accounts for around 21%. The empirical evidence of induced abortions due to contraceptive failure put serious concern regarding unintended pregnancies and hence discourages fertility intentions among the potential couples.