[Current characteristics associated with a history of induced abortion]

For the purpose of analysing the association between selected current socio-demographic characteristics and the history of induced abortion, 138 students of a Brazilian university, who had been pregnant at least once, were studied. These students were identified from among the 937 who returned, by mail, a self-administered, anonymous questionnaire distributed to all the female undergraduates. The subjects were divided into two groups, those who had and those who did not have a history of induced abortion. It was found that the largest percentage of women who had already had an induced abortion were of less than 24 years of age, were not living in marital union, had no religious affiliation and no living children at the time of the study. Analysis by logistic regression showed that having no living children was the only current characteristic associated with having had an induced abortion.