Contraceptive Choice, Unintended Pregnancy and Induced Abortion: A Case Study of Educated Urban Dwellers in Howrah, West Bengal

Sumoni Mukherjee, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Kiran Agrahari, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Other states of India have achieved low fertility emphasising mostly on sterilization, in West Bengal couples mostly depend on Traditional methods of contraception. This study tries to understand in spite of higher education of people in West Bengal as well as affordability, accessibility and availability of modern contraceptive methods, why the urban people of West Bengal are using traditional methods of contraceptive. The study used data that have 100 women who were ever users of traditional method of contraceptives. Study shows prevalence of small family norm in the population, more motivation to use traditional methods and husbands desire to use the methods. It had also observed that there were high level of unintended pregnancies due to use of traditional methods and total 33 percent induced abortions. Induced abortion found more among the women who were faced unintended pregnancy in second inter-pregnancy interval (35 percent).