Perspectives of young men on induced abortion in Kiambaa division, Kiambu District Kenya

Abstract

Context:Induced abortions are a major public health problem because they contribute to high maternal morbidity and mortality in Kenya. In many countries including Kenya, abortion is illegal except on medical grounds forcing women who want an abortion to seek non-medical interventions. Young women are more likely to abort than older women. They tend to experiment with impulsive sexual behavior, which may result in unwanted pregnancy. Many of these end up in abortion. A lot of research already done has focused on the female youth and their parents' perspectives while neglecting the young men's perspectives. Views of young men on induced abortion are important as they may influence the practice of abortion in their female partners. Objective: This study was designed to assess young men's perspectives towards induced abortion and the influencing factors in Kiambaa Division. materials and methods: This was a descriptive cross sectional study. This study was conducted in July 2002. Multistage sampling method was used to select the study site and systematic sampling was done to select the households. Data was collected through a household survey. A total of 466 respondents were interviewed using standardized pre-tested questionnaires for quantitative data. An interview guide was used to gather qualitative data from focus group discussions. results: All study respondents were consenting young men (aged 18-25) who had an average age of 21.17 years. Majority (81.8%) of them were single. About half (50.4%) of them had secondary level of education. The main religion was protestant (52.2%) followed by the Catholics (44.6%). About half (53.6%) of the respondents indicated that~~ey visited places of worship regularly. Only 15.2% of the respondents had regular income. More than half (58.2%) of the respondents approved the use of contraceptives, and almost a half (49.7%) reported that they had used a form of contraceptive. They however had inadequate contraceptive knowledge, especially on the likely period for a woman to become pregnant and on the emergency contraceptive pill. The results demonstrated that a large percentage of the young men had good knowledge of what an induced abortion was and of its consequences as well as of the methods and the safest period to induce it. The percentage of young men who had an experience in abortion was 16.3%, which was higher than expected given the fear of legal and socialrepercussions.The main role played by these respondents was paying for the abortion. Study findings indicate that most (78.6%) of the respondents disapproved of induced abortion. When the respondents were presented with various circumstances to justify abortion, more than half (56.2%) indicated no approval of abortion. Even on probing, about a third (30.7%) of the respondents did not indicate any circumstance for approval. The circumstance that drew the greatest approval for abortion was when the mother's life was threatened by the pregnancy (17.2% in spontaneous responses and 43.1% in probed responses). Most (86.2%) of the respondents knew that abortion was illegal. On asking these respondents if they preferred abortion to be legalized 82.9% were against it. In the logistic regression analysis, the respondents' perspectives towards abortion were significantly influenced by their frequency of worship, attitudes on contraceptives and experience in abortion (P<O.05). Conclusion: The study concluded that while the young men were aware of the high prevalence of abortion, they overwhelmingly disapproved abortion. The negative attitude towards induced abortion was mainly due to religious reasons and associated morbidity and mortality. Recommendations: Some of the recommendatio~s of this study include the need to strategize on gender sensitive Behavior Change and Communication (BCC) targeting young men, on ways of preventing unwanted pregnancies. This should as priority focus on contraception particularly on the emergency contraceptive pills and on sex education, provided in men friendly health facilities.