Abstract

Hadgu Gerensea*, Yonas G/egziabher, Yemane Tsegay, Tarik G/tsadkan, Endrias Kiros, Legas Tadese, Patrcia Malloy, Rajalakshmi Murugan, Tadele Desta and Mitslal Asefa

ABSTRACT

Background: Unwanted pregnancy is the major cause of induced abortion, one of the leading causes of maternal mortality and morbidity in the world. Hundreds of thousands of women become pregnant without intending to, and many of them decide to end the pregnancies into abortion. Youth are more susceptible to unwanted pregnancies; this may be explained by the fact that premarital sexual activity is very common and reported to be on the rise in all parts of the world. This could be explained by the fact that youths are facing various problems with Regards to their reproductive health needs including contraceptive use. Objective: The study assessed the magnitude of unwanted pregnancies and induced abortion among female youths aged 15-24 years in shire town in 2015. Methodology: A cross sectional study, was conducted among youths aged 15-24 years in shire town using a Semi structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics including chi square and p-value was applied. To reach each house hold Simple random sampling technique was used. Results: The mean age for fist sexual intercourse was 18 years. 57 % of the study respondents agreed to have used contraceptives, 33 % of all the pregnancies had unwanted pregnancy and 26 % of them ended up into abortions, out of all the abortions 87 % were induced. Out of all the abortions 74 % were the result of an unwanted pregnancy. Single youths were found to have more likely hood of having unwanted pregnancy and induced abortion with the proportion of 78 % x 2 = 48.02 , p<0.05) and 59 % x2 =32.4 P<0.05) respectively. Conclusion: The prevalence of unwanted pregnancy and induced abortion were high, and most of the induced abortion was the result of unwanted pregnancy. There was low utilization of contraceptives among female youths. Female youths who were single, unmarried and students were found to have high likelihood of having unwanted pregnancy and induced abortion.