Abortion – the best or the worst solution for an unexpected pregnancy

The sexual-reproductive health is a world priority. In September 2000, the 189 countries participating in the Millennium Summit adopted the Millennium Declaration; three of the eight Objectives of the Declaration are directly linked to the reproductive health: infant mortality decrease, maternal health improvement, fighting against HIV/AIDS. In this respect, we are running a Grant (project code 72/2008), financially supported by the National Council of Scientific Research in Academic Education, and aimed to evaluate the reproductive health quality in south-western Romania. We interviewed 1,200 people, men and women, about their opinion and experience regarding abortion. More than 60% of the subjects consider abortion is the best solution to end an unexpected pregnancy; this opinion is more frequently expressed by men and by people with academic instruction (p<0.05). The latent class cluster analysis indicates three clusters: (1) abortion is always justified (61.4% of the respondents); (2) abortion is justified when mother's life is in danger or the fetus has malformations, but not for socio-economical raisons (20.6%); (3) abortion is never accepted (18%). The abortion risk for the women health is considered high (44.01%) or medium (35.65%). The post-abortion syndrome, including guiltiness, depression and aversion to the partner was reported by less than 40% of the women who experienced an abortion. The results show abortion is still an important method to control the number of births in Romania, especially in rural areas. Although last years abortion rate has decreased, it suggests modern contraception is still less used in family planning.