Background: Unsafe abortion is a significant cause of maternal mortality and morbidity globally. In 2005, the Ethiopian penal code was amended to permit abortion under specific circumstances to minimize the problem. However, its practice is hampered by lack of awareness of the revised criminal code and access to the service. Methods: Institution based cross-sectional qualitative and quantitative study has been conducted to assess awareness and attitude of university and college female students’ to the law. A sample of 845 students from one university and three colleges of Arba Minch town were selected by multistage sampling method. Data entry, cleaning and coding were performed using SPSS version 16 and analyzed with the same soft ware. Associations between dependent and independent variables were tested using logistic regression. P-values > 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant in all cases. Result: Twenty three (43%) among 54 pregnancies were reported as ended with induced abortion. Ethiopia’s abortion law was expected to increase women’s access to safe abortion services but only 261 (32.1%) of college and university students of Arba Minch town were aware about this law after 6 years of liberalization. Better level of awareness had been recorded in health science students as compared with natural science students (OR (95% CI) = 2.8 (1.9, 4.2). Only 246 (30.3%) among all participants (813) were found to have positive attitude towards criteria set to induce abortion. This is roughly in line with health professionals’ attitude at the time safe abortion service was on the process of liberalization. Conclusion: Religion, college (specialty) and sexual experience of students found to be the factors affecting attitude. The knowledge gap may let the students continually suffer from unsafe abortion sequel; so stakeholders should work on awareness creation.
| DOI | 10.11648/j.sjph.20140205.20 |
| Published in | Science Journal of Public Health (Volume 2, Issue 5, September 2014) |
| Page(s) | 440-446 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Awareness, Attitude, Inducing Abortion Law, Ethiopia, Female Students
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APA Style
Worku Animaw, Binyam Bogale. (2014). Awareness and Attitude to Liberalized Safe Abortion Services among Female Students in University and Colleges of Arba Minch Town, Ethiopia. Science Journal of Public Health, 2(5), 440-446. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20140205.20
ACS Style
Worku Animaw; Binyam Bogale. Awareness and Attitude to Liberalized Safe Abortion Services among Female Students in University and Colleges of Arba Minch Town, Ethiopia. Sci. J. Public Health 2014, 2(5), 440-446. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20140205.20
AMA Style
Worku Animaw, Binyam Bogale. Awareness and Attitude to Liberalized Safe Abortion Services among Female Students in University and Colleges of Arba Minch Town, Ethiopia. Sci J Public Health. 2014;2(5):440-446. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20140205.20
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Download@article{10.11648/j.sjph.20140205.20,
author = {Worku Animaw and Binyam Bogale},
title = {Awareness and Attitude to Liberalized Safe Abortion Services among Female Students in University and Colleges of Arba Minch Town, Ethiopia},
journal = {Science Journal of Public Health},
volume = {2},
number = {5},
pages = {440-446},
doi = {10.11648/j.sjph.20140205.20},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20140205.20},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjph.20140205.20},
abstract = {Background: Unsafe abortion is a significant cause of maternal mortality and morbidity globally. In 2005, the Ethiopian penal code was amended to permit abortion under specific circumstances to minimize the problem. However, its practice is hampered by lack of awareness of the revised criminal code and access to the service. Methods: Institution based cross-sectional qualitative and quantitative study has been conducted to assess awareness and attitude of university and college female students’ to the law. A sample of 845 students from one university and three colleges of Arba Minch town were selected by multistage sampling method. Data entry, cleaning and coding were performed using SPSS version 16 and analyzed with the same soft ware. Associations between dependent and independent variables were tested using logistic regression. P-values > 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant in all cases. Result: Twenty three (43%) among 54 pregnancies were reported as ended with induced abortion. Ethiopia’s abortion law was expected to increase women’s access to safe abortion services but only 261 (32.1%) of college and university students of Arba Minch town were aware about this law after 6 years of liberalization. Better level of awareness had been recorded in health science students as compared with natural science students (OR (95% CI) = 2.8 (1.9, 4.2). Only 246 (30.3%) among all participants (813) were found to have positive attitude towards criteria set to induce abortion. This is roughly in line with health professionals’ attitude at the time safe abortion service was on the process of liberalization. Conclusion: Religion, college (specialty) and sexual experience of students found to be the factors affecting attitude. The knowledge gap may let the students continually suffer from unsafe abortion sequel; so stakeholders should work on awareness creation.},
year = {2014}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Awareness and Attitude to Liberalized Safe Abortion Services among Female Students in University and Colleges of Arba Minch Town, Ethiopia AU - Worku Animaw AU - Binyam Bogale Y1 - 2014/09/10 PY - 2014 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20140205.20 DO - 10.11648/j.sjph.20140205.20 T2 - Science Journal of Public Health JF - Science Journal of Public Health JO - Science Journal of Public Health SP - 440 EP - 446 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2328-7950 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20140205.20 AB - Background: Unsafe abortion is a significant cause of maternal mortality and morbidity globally. In 2005, the Ethiopian penal code was amended to permit abortion under specific circumstances to minimize the problem. However, its practice is hampered by lack of awareness of the revised criminal code and access to the service. Methods: Institution based cross-sectional qualitative and quantitative study has been conducted to assess awareness and attitude of university and college female students’ to the law. A sample of 845 students from one university and three colleges of Arba Minch town were selected by multistage sampling method. Data entry, cleaning and coding were performed using SPSS version 16 and analyzed with the same soft ware. Associations between dependent and independent variables were tested using logistic regression. P-values > 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant in all cases. Result: Twenty three (43%) among 54 pregnancies were reported as ended with induced abortion. Ethiopia’s abortion law was expected to increase women’s access to safe abortion services but only 261 (32.1%) of college and university students of Arba Minch town were aware about this law after 6 years of liberalization. Better level of awareness had been recorded in health science students as compared with natural science students (OR (95% CI) = 2.8 (1.9, 4.2). Only 246 (30.3%) among all participants (813) were found to have positive attitude towards criteria set to induce abortion. This is roughly in line with health professionals’ attitude at the time safe abortion service was on the process of liberalization. Conclusion: Religion, college (specialty) and sexual experience of students found to be the factors affecting attitude. The knowledge gap may let the students continually suffer from unsafe abortion sequel; so stakeholders should work on awareness creation. VL - 2 IS - 5 ER -
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