CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy associated with the death and expulsion of a fetus from a uterus before it reaches the stage of viability. An abortion may occur spontaneously, in normal parlance it is called a miscarriage, or it may be brought on purposefully in which case it is often called an induced abortion (www.britannica.com).
The issue of abortion has attracted substantial attention in recent times in Nigeria and everywhere in the world; abortion has therefore become a global issue (Alimson, 2001). The major concern in most of the discussions on abortion and related situation draws heavily from the fact that abortion constitutes severe danger to a woman’s health, but at the same time when performed by medical specialist (i.e abortion specialists) abortions are safe for the woman, and relatively simple. Religious institutions are against the abortion process as they believe abortion is a process of committing murder and murderer are seen as sinners (Knight, 2003) Whey the society frowns at it is because of the inherent fact that if the phenomenon is not regulated it would impact negatively on the population growth and also on the welfare of women (Barreto, 1992).
Abortion is therefore forbidden in many societies especially the traditional ones. The “abrupt removal” or premature termination of babies are said to be as a result of certain factors.
Most societies therefore recognize the importance of medical factors in pregnancy termination. According to the Oxford medical Dictionary, induced abortion can be performed for reasons that fall into four general categories.
i. To preserve the life or physical or mental well-being of the mother.
ii. To prevent the completion of a pregnancy that has resulted from rape or incest.
iii. To prevent the birth of a child with serious deformity or genetic abnormality.
iv. To prevent a birth because of the age of a women, therefore, a girl whose body has not formed property for child birth, or a woman who has passed her child bearing age, as it could be dangerous for the two.
Abortions that are performed to preserve the well-being of the female or in case of rape or incest are therapeutic or justifiable abortions. Induced abortion is accepted on some countries but in other countries it is highly forbidden.
However, other factors (economic social, educational, and family size) have equally become prominent in respect to abortion or pregnancy termination. Both male and female students are supposed to be sexually responsible since a lot of student’s in today’s society are already sexually active, but females always carry the bulk of the responsibility as they are the ones who would be greatly affected by any mistake (Alimson, 2001). For instance, a female student who forget to take necessary pregnancy precautions and therefore gets pregnant may resort to an abortion for the following reasons.
i. To complete her education,
ii. ii. To avoid becoming a mother prematurely, as well as the responsibility attached to it,
iii. To avoid being negatively labelled by the society has been “loose”
iv. Fear of having a child out of wedlock. (Almison, 2001:3).