Abstract
BackgroundWomen’s empowerment is multidimensional. Women’s education, employment, income, reproductive healthcare decision making, household level decision making and social status are vital for women’s empowerment. Nepal is committed to achieving women empowerment and gender equality, which directly affects the reproductive health issues. This can be achieved by addressing the issues of the poor and marginalized communities. In this context, we aimed to find the association of women’s empowerment with abortion and family planning decision making among marginalized women in Nepal.MethodsA cross sectional study was conducted at selected municipalities of Morang district of Nepal from February 2017 to March 2018. A mixed method approach was used, where 316 married marginalized women of reproductive age (15–49 years) and 15 key informant interviews from representative healthcare providers and local leaders were taken. From key informants, data were analysed using the thematic framework method. Findings obtained from two separate analyses were drawn together and meta inferences were made.ResultsWomen’s empowerment was above average, at 50.6%. Current use of modern contraceptives were more among below average empowerment groups (p 0.041, OR 0.593 C.I. 0.36–0.98). We could not find any statistically significant differences among levels of women’s empowerment, including those women with abortion knowledge (p 0.549); family planning knowledge (p 0.495) and women’s decision for future use of modern contraceptives (p 0.977). Most key informants reported that unsafe abortion was practiced.ConclusionsWomen’s empowerment has no direct role for family planning and abortion decision making at marginalized communities of Morang district of Nepal. However, different governmental and non-governmental organizations influence woman for seeking health care services and family planning in rural community of Nepal irrespective of empowerment status.
Highlights
We conducted our study among marginalized married women of reproductive age group in a district of Nepal
We found that women’s empowerment has no significant association on abortion and family planning decision making among marginalized women
Illegal practices of abortion was reported from key informants
Summary
This can be achieved by addressing the issues of the poor and marginalized communities In this context, we aimed to find the association of women’s empowerment with abortion and family planning decision making among marginalized women in Nepal. Nepal is committed to achieving women empowerment and gender equality as per SDG 5 of the United Nation [10] This goal can be achieved by addressing the issues of the poor and marginalized community. Factors of woman’s empowerment contributing to abortion and family planning decision making is of paramount importance to reduce morbidity and mortality related to unsafe abortion and to increase access to family planning services
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