Knowledge and Attitudes of a Number of Iranian Policy-makers towards Abortion (original) (raw)
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Triangular Assessment of the Etiology of Induced Abortion in Iran: A Qualitative Study
Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal, 2013
Background: About 46 million induced abortions occur in the world annually. The studies have reported 80000 cases of induced abortions in Iran annually. Objectives: This qualitative study was conducted to identify the causes of unsafe abortion in Iran from the standpoint of three groups of experts, women with a history of abortion or unwanted pregnancy and service providers. Patients and Methods: A total of 72 in-depth semi structured interviews were conducted in 2012 in Tehran and Shahroud. After coordination with 8 experts, sampling from them was done using the Snowballing method in their offices. Sampling from 28 married and 10 engaged women with a history of unwanted pregnancy or unsafe abortion and 12 providers was done in health care centers and a in number of gynecologists' and midwives' offices. Sampling from women with a history of unwanted pregnancy or unsafe abortion such as single women, HIV positive women and drug users, and women who had sexual intercourse for money was started by referring to the social rehabilitation center for women and continued using the snowballing method due to difficulties in accessing them. Participants were from different ethnic groups including Fars, Gilaki, Mazandarani, Arab, Azerbaijani, and Lor. Content analysis was performed on collected data. Results: Based on the results of the interviews, participants have abortion for following reasons: 1. Wanted pregnancy (sub categories: fetal abnormalities, Concern about fetal health and lack of trust to prenatal diagnostic methods, Fetal sex, Lack of independent and free decision making regarding pregnancy in women, 2. Unwanted pregnancy (sub-categories: Socioeconomic factors, Beliefs and feelings, Lack of information about family planning) 3. Predisposing factors (sub-categories: Lack of information on religious aspects of abortion, Easy access to easy abortion methods). Some people, despite having unwanted pregnancy due to social, economic, cultural and family grounds, continued their pregnancy and did not have an abortion for the following reasons: Religious beliefs, Beliefs (fear of punishment in the afterlife and believing in fate) , Attachment to the unborn baby, Influence of the other people's opinions (physician, mother or spouse) Late diagnosis of pregnancy, Unsuccessful abortion attempts (Self-treatment, Unsuccessful medical abortion), Economic weakness and arbitrary treatment. Conclusions: In the present study, women who continued their pregnancy despite being unwanted were also interviewed. Although they had the same social, economic, cultural, and family problems as women with a history of unsafe abortion and had easy access to abortion, analysis showed that the difference in religious beliefs between the two groups was the most important factor that led women to choose two different approaches. The authors believe that in-depth analysis of people's beliefs and opinions in this regard and correction of false beliefs plays a crucial role in decreasing the rate of unsafe abortion.
2020
Background: Abortion has always been one of the most challenging issues in societies. Women's decision for having a legal abortion has always been influenced by factors such as their spouse, family, society, culture and religious beliefs. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the ethical aspects of legal abortion from pregnant women's viewpoints, referring to Iran's forensic medicine center. Methods: This is a descriptive-analytical study conducted in 2019. The research samples consisted of pregnant women referring to forensic medicine in Isfahan for obtaining legal abortion permission. Using a convenience sampling method, 229 subjects were selected. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods. Results: In the present study, the highest and lowest mean score of ethical aspects belonged to the variables of autonomy (36.20±3.01) and justice (17.24±2.45), respectively. Th...
Copyright© Abortion in Iranian Legal System Corresponding Author
Abortion traditionally means miscarriage and is still known as a problem, which societies have been trying to reduce its rate by using legal means. Despite the fact that pregnant women and fetuses have been historically supported; abortion was firstly criminalized in 1926 in Iran, 20 years after establishment of modern legal system. During next 53 years this situation changed dramatically, thus in 1979, the time of Islamic Revolution, aborting fetuses up to 12 weeks of conception and therapeutic abortion (TA) during the entire period of pregnancy were legitimated, based on regulations that used medical justifications. After 1979 the situation changed into a totally conservative and restrictive approach and new Islamic concepts as "Blood Money" and "Ensoulment" entered the legal debates around abortion. During next 33 years, again a trend of decriminalization for the act of abortion has been continued.
Abortion in Iranian legal system: a review
Iranian journal of allergy, asthma, and immunology, 2014
Abortion traditionally means, "to miscarry" and is still known as a problem which societies has been trying to reduce its rate by using legal means. Despite the pregnant women and fetuses have being historically supported; abortion was firstly criminalized in 1926 in Iran, 20 years after establishment of modern legal system. During next 53 years this situation changed dramatically, so in 1979, the time of Islamic Revolution, aborting fetuses before 12 weeks and therapeutic abortion (TA) during all the pregnancy length was legitimate, based on regulations that used medical justification. After 1979 the situation changed into a totally conservative and restrictive approach and new Islamic concepts as "Blood Money" and "Ensoulment" entered the legal debates around abortion. During the next 33 years, again a trend of decriminalization for the act of abortion has been continuing. Reduction of punishments and omitting retaliation for criminal abortions, recog...
Attitudes of Medical and Health Sciences Students towards Abortion in Jordan
BioMed Research International
Background. Jordan laws on permitting abortion are considered moderate. Religion is one of the key determinants of people’s attitudes towards abortion and plays a crucial role in people’s readiness to accept or refute this practice. In this study, we examined the attitudes of medical and health sciences students towards abortion. Methods. In this cross-sectional study, a self-administered questionnaire survey was distributed to students at Jordan University of Science and Technology. Attitudes towards abortion were tested using 16 items that were included in the survey. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression models were used in the analysis. Results. A total of 1324 students in the medicine and dentistry colleges participated in the study. Two-thirds of the participants were women. Most participants were 20–25 years old, and they grew up in a family of 6–8 members. The overall attitude towards abortion was negative, except if the pregnancy was a threat to the mother’s life (...
Copyright © 2014 SciRes. OPEN ACCESS Knowledge about abortion law among young women in Iran
2014
Copyright © 2014 Lida Jarahi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In accor-dance of the Creative Commons Attribution License all Copyrights © 2014 are reserved for SCIRP and the owner of the intellectual property Lida Jarahi et al. All Copyright © 2014 are guarded by law and by SCIRP as a guardian. Young women are at risk of attempting abortion because of their tendency to delay childbearing. In legal limitation for abortion, low information about abortion laws and consequences of un-safe abortion can result in that women refer to il-legal providers. This study investigated knowl-edge of young women about abortion laws, its complications and their consent with intentional abortion. Near to 50 % of participants were not informed about national abortion legislation and its criminal law, and more than 66...
Attitude of Reproductive Age Women towards Factors Affecting Induced Abortion in Hamedan, Iran
Journal of midwifery and reproductive health, 2016
Background & aim: Abortion is the third leading cause of maternal mortality. The attitude of women towards abortion is one of the most important factors involved in this issue. This study aimed to evaluate the attitude of women of reproductive age towards induced abortion. Methods This cross-sectional study was performed on 450 women of reproductive age in Fatemieh Hospital in Hamedan, Iran in 2014. Data was collected using abortion attitude scale consisting of five sections: socioeconomic status, family status, maternal and fetal health status, psycho -cultural background, and fertility status. Mean score less than three in each domain was considered as negative attitude, while scores higher or equal to three indicated positive attitude towards induced abortion. To analyze the data, logistic regression analysis, Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were performed using SPSS version 21. P value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: In this study, in...
Complications of illegal abortion in the suburbs of Tehran: A 9-year cross-sectional study
In countries with restricted abortion laws, unintended pregnancy leads to increased tendency to unsafe abortion. Illegal or unsafe abortions could be an important cause of maternal mortality and morbidity. [8,9] In Iran, similar to other developing countries, complications of illegal abortion are more prevalent as compared to developed countries. [10,11] Selective abortion is beyond a medical issue for the mother and the fetus;, it is an important topic for theoretical debate. However, the objective existence of the mother is faded out or even dismissed in theoretical sciences; most of the discussions are about personhood, soul of the fetus, and eventually defense of the fetus.