Abstract

Background: Although abortion on demand is legal in Albania since 1995, abortion is widely under-reported. While under-reporting of abortions in surveys is widespread in different contexts because of the stigma, in the case of Albania under-reporting is very significant, due to induced abortions performed illegally until 1995, the reluctance to report abortion in a patriarchal society and the late implementation of national surveys in 2007. This study reports sociodemographic data of women who had induced abortions, as well as reasons to terminate pregnancy. Methods: The sample consisted of 186 Albanian women, who had at least one lifetime induced abortion. Data from a survey were used to describe the rates of abortions by respondent characteristics, particularly age at abortion, marital status, residence, education, socio-economic status, number of abortions, gestational age, circumstances of pregnancy and reasons for abortion. Results: There is a high rate of women who have had more than one abortion in this sample. Out of the 291 abortions in total, 62% of the sample had one abortion, 25% two abortions and 13% three to six abortions. Married women obtained a substantial proportion of abortions (70%). The highest proportion of first abortion occurred among women aged 20-29. Conclusions: Social factors played a significant role in the decision-making process for women considering an abortion. 45% of the sample was unemployed and a further one quarter had low-paid jobs. Financial constraints, interference with life aims, family size and unwillingness to be a single mother in an unstable relationship featured strongly in women accounts of why they needed to abort. 3% of women stated sex-selection reason behind decision for abortion. Women disclosed having experienced domestic violence (24%) and sexual abuse (4%), which should be further explored as a co-occurring risk associated with unintended pregnancy.

Key words: Induced abortion; rate; characteristics; reasons; women; Albania.