Analysis of unintended pregnancy and influencing factors among married women in China

Abstract

Unintended pregnancy often ends with induced abortion, an outcome that affects a woman’s physical and mental health and consumes social resources. A national fertility survey conducted by the former National Health and Family Planning Commission in 2017, gathered data on pregnancies among married women aged 15–49 to analyze the changing circumstances of such pregnancies and the factors that influence their occurrence. The analysis found that the incidence of unintended pregnancies among married women in China was 42.4‰ in 2017, and that such pregnancies accounted for 22.9% of all pregnancies in China for the years 2010–2017. Of all abortions, 91.9% were used to terminate unintended pregnancies, and of unintended pregnancies, 67.1% ended with induced abortions. The incidence of unintended pregnancy and that of induced abortion to terminate the unintended pregnancy were higher among women living in an urban rather than a rural area, having previously given birth to a boy, having a large number of children, being at the older end of their childbearing years, or having a shorter interpregnancy interval. Only 37.3% of women chose long-term contraceptive methods after an induced abortion caused by an unintended pregnancy; their sense of self-protection was not strong. It is necessary to strengthen education and advocacy, enhance women's awareness of the protection contraceptives offer, and improve the quality of and access to contraceptive services to reduce the incidence of unintended pregnancy, and reduce the incidence of induced abortion to terminate unintended pregnancy.