INDUCED ABORTION AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG FEMALE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ILU-ABABOR ZONE, OROMIYA NATIONAL REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

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 e.g. lack of information, misinformation, fear of side effects as well as social, cultural and economic barriers in accessing the family planning services, economic problems, violence as well as cultural and social beliefs. Objective: The study was assessed the magnitude of induced abortion among female students in Ilu-Ababor Zone. Specifically the study was tryed to examine the association between the magnitude of induced abortion among female students with other factors like contraceptive knowledge and use, socio demographic characteristics, socio cultural factors and sexual factors. Methodology: A cross sectional study, was conducted among 844 female students in Ilu-Ababor Zone using a Semi structured questionnaire. Result and discussion: A total of 844 of female students were interviewed and 837 of them were responded for the questionnaire with response rate of 99.2%.. Among those who exposed to sexual practices 106 (42.9%) had history of abortion. From the total that had history of abortion 82(77.4%) was induced in nature and only 24(23.6%) was spontaneous. Conclusion and recommendation: Although the majority of participants had no history of sexual exposure, significant number of them had history of abortion. So, since they were students and not yet prepared to bring child this can affect them socially, academically, morally and economically. Thus, youth centered services should have to be available for them at each high school.