Revelation and secrecy: Women’s social networks and the contraception-abortion process in Cameroon

Abstract

Induced abortion is both illegal and common in Cameroon. To understand the frequency of pregnancy termination, this chapter investigates how social networks influence Cameroonian women's decisions about contraception, pregnancy, and abortion-along the entire contraception-abortion process. Women's decisions defining the state, intentionality, and desired action regarding early pregnancies are constructed in interaction with networks and social environments. African women and their responses to unintended or unwanted pregnancy are heterogeneous. Variations in social network influence reflect differences in the vulnerability felt by young unmarried women, by married non-elites, and by married women of the urban educated elite. The influence of male sexual partners, mothers, female friends, and fellow association members likewise vary, as women alternatively choose to reveal or keep secret their reproductive quandaries. Former versions of this contribution were presented at the Reproductive Health Challenges conference in Granavolden, Norway, August 2008, and the IUSSP International Seminar on Interrelationships between Contraception, Unintended Pregnancy and Induced Abortion in Addis Ababa, December 2008. We are grateful for the helpful comments of discussants Friday Okonofua and Clémentine Rossier, as well as to the editors of this edited volume. We especially acknowledge Dr. Flavien T. Ndonko’s collaboration on the hometown association “Social Networks and Reproductive Health” project. The research was supported by a dissertation grant awarded to Sylvie Schuster by the German Academic Exchange and by awards to Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg by Fulbright/IEE, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Sigma Xi Foundation, the National Science Foundation Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Education award (Grant No. SES-0074789), the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Anthropological Demography, and Carleton College. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the granting agencies.