title: Abortion as a backup method for contraceptive failure in China.
abstract: Contraceptive failure rates for modern methods including sterilization are reported to be high in China, but little is known about the consequence of contraceptive failure and characteristics of women who decide to have an abortion if a contraceptive failure occurs. Using 6225 contraceptive failures from the 1988 Chinese Two-per-Thousand Fertility Survey, this study examines the resolution of contraceptive failure and assesses the impact of some women's sociodemographic characteristics on the decision to terminate contraceptive failure in abortion. This study has three important findings: (1) The abortion rate was 50.1%, 75.3% and 80.2% for IUD, condom and pill failures, respectively; (2) The abortion rates differed by contraceptive method and women's social and demographic characteristics. In particular, a woman with just one child was most likely to have the contraceptive failure aborted; (3) Some women experienced repeated abortions because of contraceptive failure. The results suggest that abortion was a backup method if contraception failed in China and the correlates of aborting an unwanted pregnancy reflect the strong impact of the Chinese family planning programme.
authors.affiliation: Medical Statistics Unit, Department of Epidemiology & Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London.
authors.forename: Duolao
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Zhonghui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Feng
mesh_terms: D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003267:Contraception / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003268:Contraception Behavior / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003625:Data Collection; D003657:Decision Making; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008875:Middle Aged; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012923:Social Class; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017211:Treatment Failure