Abortion withdrawal of sexual violence pregnancy: the role of the sex offender

Introduction: Unwanted pregnancy is a serious consequence for women who experience sexual violence. Although deciding on abortion is frequent in these cases, there is not much information on women who give up abortion in this circumstance. Objective: To analyse the associated factors in abortion withdrawal of sexual violence pregnancy. Methods: A cross-sectional epidemiological study with a convenience sample of adolescents and women with pregnancy due to sexual violence and requesting legal abortion between August 1994 and December 2012, at Hospital Perola Byington, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Pregnant women who gave up abortion after receiving the procedure approval were included and, in another group, pregnant women who completed the abortion. The variables were selected from a digitized database and analyzed using SPSS 15.0 software. The outcome was abortion withdrawal. The study variables were age; low education level; gestational age; color/black ethnicity; not being united; declare religion; serious threat from the aggressor; known offender; and residence of the aggressor. Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated. The analysis used Wald's chi-square test (?2W) and logistic regression with variable of interest defined as the known aggressor. The research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Sao Paulo, Opinion No. 6767. Results: The study included 941 women, 849 (90.2%) who had an abortion and 92 (9.8%) who gave up after being approved. Age ranged from 10-46 years, mean 23.2 ± 7.9 years, gestational age 4-22 weeks, average 11.9 ± 4.5 weeks. Among those who gave up abortion, 12.0% were <14 years old; 50.0% had gestational age ? 13 weeks; 50.0% had low education; 14.2% were black; 90.2% single; 85.9% declared to have religion; 50.0% were threatened; 12.0% of the cases occurred at the perpetrator's residence and 53.3% of the victims were raped by known perpetrators. In logistic regression, the only significant variable was the known perpetrator, increasing the victim's chance of giving up abortion twice. Conclusion: The known sex offender has influenced the woman or adolescent's decision to give up legal abortion.