ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Reprod. Health
Sec. Gynecology
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frph.2025.1536582
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovations and Early-Career Research in Gynecology 2024-2025View all articles
Factors Associated with Induced Abortions in Pakistan: A Comprehensive Analysis of Pakistan Maternal Mortality Survey 2019
Provisionally accepted
- 1Health Services Academy, Islamabad, Pakistan
- 2Bahria University, Karachi, Karachi, Punjab, Pakistan
- 3World Health Organization, Country Office, Islamabad, Pakistan
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BackgroundInduced abortions (IA) remain a serious public health issue in Pakistan despite social constraints and legal prohibitions. The number is alarmingly high, and the study done by the Population Council (2012) indirectly estimated 2.2 million abortions per year and an abortion rate of 50 per 1,000 women.MethodologyThis study reports the results of a secondary data analysis of the Pakistan Maternal Mortality Survey 2019 to compare the women who reported having an IA in the last three years with those having a live birth in the same period. A nested case-control comparison of women reporting IA as cases and those having a live birth as controls. Logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) for major risk factors of maternal mortality after adjusting for women’s age, parity, education, and wealth quintile.ResultsResults show that recent use of family planning, having a prior history of pregnancy loss, and higher gravidity are all linked to IA (P< 0.05). On the other hand, neither the average household education nor the women's education affects the rates. The other associated factors include parity, past use of family planning, socioeconomic status, place of residence, and the educational level of women. These correlations are based only on uncorrected odds ratios and do not account for confounding variables.ConclusionWomen having past miscarriages, having several children, or improperly using family planning methods are more likely to have induced abortions. These findings can help medical professionals develop evidence-based policies and regulations.
Keywords: abortions, Maternal health, PMMS 2019, Risk factors, pregnacy loss
Received: 29 Nov 2024; Accepted: 09 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Khalid, Midhet, Uzma, Thom, Baqai and Khan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Samina Naeem Khalid, Health Services Academy, Islamabad, Pakistan
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