Knowledge and Care-Seeking Behavior of Safe Abortion in Four Selected Districts of Bihar and Jharkhand, India

Sushanta Banerjee, Ipas
Kathryn Andersen Clark, Ipas
Subrato K. Mondal, Population Foundation of India, India

Unsafe abortion is a global public health issue receiving increasing attention primarily focused on supply-side interventions such as training providers and equipping facilities. The purpose of this project is to create a behavior change communication intervention to educate women on safe abortion, beginning with baseline assessment of knowledge, attitude, behavior and practice and mass media exposure. Based on availability of safe abortion services, one district from each state was selected: Patna in Bihar and Lohardaga in Jharkhand. Control districts were selected by matching socio-demographic characteristics. The target population was married women, ages 15-44; women were selected using two-stage stratified random sampling. Baseline data have been analyzed for 752 women in the two intervention districts, including 352 women from Patna and 350 women from Lohardaga. The full paper compares intervention and control districts and provides a description of the resulting BCC campaign.