The changing patterns of abortion among married women in China, 1984-2005

To identify changing levels and patterns of abortion in China among married women, and the determinants of these changes.

Based on data from four nationwide surveys conducted by the Chinese National Population and Family Planning Commission in 1988, 1997, 2001 and 2006, this paper analyzed abortion rates by age, residence, and education. To minimize recall error, only the pregnancy history of the 5-10 years before the survey was used.

Overall abortion levels in China fluctuated in the period 1970-1990, but declined markedly after 1991. The profile of women resorting to abortion has shifted from older, rural, less educated women, toward younger, urban, more educated women, at a rate beyond the change in composition of the population as a whole. Young, urban, educated women are also the demographic group more likely to employ "user controlled", short term methods.

The findings are consistent with a gradual shift in the Chinese family planning programme, increasingly meeting the principles of the International Conference on Population and Development, which calls for making contraception accessible, and thereby helping women avoid recourse to abortion. Future reproductive health programmes should allow women more autonomy in socio-economic factors affecting their reproductive health.