Profile of women undergoing medical termination of pregnancy in hospital.

This study was undertaken to determine the profile of 1000 consecutive cases of women undergoing medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital. 95.6% of the cases were married and 4.4% were unmarried. In the whole series 7.6% of cases were unmarried teens; 90.9% were teens. In 56% of the married group the monthly family income was more than Rs500/month whereas the majority of those in the unmarried group had family incomes of less than Rs500/month. Across the series 44.4% of the cases were illiterate 48.2% were educated up to primary school and only 7.3% of the cases had a high school education or higher. In the married group 204 cases undergoing MTP had one living issue 388 cases had 2 living issues and 396 cases had 3 living issues. In the whole series 88% of cases were first trimester MTP and 12% were second trimester MTP whereas among the unmarrieds 72.7% of cases were in their second trimesters and 5.7% of cases had a history of previous MTP. Effective contraception was seen in only 6% prior to MTP whereas it increased to 90.6% after MTP. (authors modified)