Abstract:
pregnancy at the time of conception [1]. Out of
about 210 million global pregnancies annually,
about forty (40) percent are not planned and
twenty-two (22) percent are aborted [2]. Ninetyfive
percent (95.0%) are terminated in an unsafe
manner in developing countries [2]. This rate has
been higher in Africa but similar in Ghana [3].
Unsafe abortion has been shown to account for
15% to 30% of all maternal deaths in Ghana
[4,5]. Knowledge on the immediate factors
leading to the occurrences of unintended
pregnancies could help in putting in preventive
measures in order to reduce morbidity and
mortality associated with unsafe abortion. These
factors include contraceptive failure, non-use of
contraception, using contraception inconsistently
or incorrectly, rape/incest and sex for a favour
[6–8]. Hatcher and colleagues associated a
relatively small fraction of unintended
pregnancies to contraceptive failure when
modern highly effective contraceptives are used
[7]. Incorrect or non-use of contraceptive might
be as a result of coercion, rape or involuntary sex
in the context of domestic violence [9].
Unintended pregnancies are more likely to be
associated with abuse than intended
pregnancies.
