Journal of Women's Health Care
Open Access

Abstract

The Perspective of Women Regarding Induced Abortion in an Islamic Country (Turkey): A Descriptive Study

Zeynep Baykan, Fevziye Çetinkaya, Melis Naçar and Serpil Poyrazoğlu

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the perception regarding induced abortion.
Method: This descriptive study was conducted in 1-15 October 2011. A questionnaire was applied to 419 married women by educated midwives/nurses.
Results: The mean age of the women was 34.0 ± 7.7 years. 45.3% of them stated that the ideal number of children for a family as three. 80.7% believe that induced abortion is a sin and 74.9% had stated that it was a kind of murder, therefore was forbidden by religion. Also the irreversible modern methods of contraception, such as tubal ligation (24.1% of the women, and 17.2% of the spouses), and vasectomy (25.5% of the women, and 17.4% of the spouses) were perceived as a sin. 31.3% thought “induced abortion was not a sin in the case of a handicapped fetus”, 53.5% thought “it wasn’t a sin if the pregnancy was endangering maternal health” and 41.8% thought “it wasn’t a sin if the pregnancy was the result of rape”. Out of 419 women 58 (12.7%) had an induced abortion.
Conclusion: One woman out of four thinks that irreversible contraceptive methods are a sin.