Abortion among Kurdish Women from Mahabad in 2016

Background & Aim: Abortion, as one of the factors affecting maternal health, is considered as a health and social problem. This paper aimed to investigate the status of abortion among Kurdish women in Mahabad and to determine the prevalence of spontaneous abortion and induced abortion and its related factors. Materials & Methods: This research is a cross-sectional survey. The study sample size included 360 married women, aged 15- 49 years old. Researcher constructed questionnaire was adopted for collecting data. Using cluster sampling, four regions were selected, and women were chosen through random sampling. Data were analyzed by SPSS and PLS software, and X2 and Logistic regression (P= 0.05) were adopted for analyzing the relationships of variables. Results: A total of 30.6 % of women had experienced abortion and 34.5% of them had induced abortion. Women with high socioeconomic status mostly committed induced abortion and those with low-level socioeconomics had spontaneous abortion (x2 = 6.421, P = 0.02). Women who were employed or had high level of education mostly committed induced abortion (x2 = 28.40, P= 0.001). According to logistic regression, individualism (B = 0.612, P= 0.04), rationality (B = 0.979, P= 0.02), and adherence to religion (B =-0.987, P= 0.006) had significant impacts on committing induced abortion. Conclusion: Unmet needs of women can affect induced abortion. Unmet needs besides religious and secular beliefs may determine the level of induced abortion in society. The increasing tendency toward individualism and instrumental rationality may increase the couples’ tendency to control the number of children. It is the case while the failure of contraception may lead to induced abortion.