Perspectives of Male Youth on Induced Abortion in Kiambaa Division, Kiambu District - Kenya

Abortion is a major public health problem because it contributes to high maternal morbidity and mortality. The majority of these abortions are induced .In many countries including Kenya, abortion is illegal except on medical grounds. Young people are more likely to abortion than older people. They tend to experiment with irresponsible sexual behavior which may result in unwanted pregnancy. Many of these end up in abortion. A lot of research already done has focussed on the female youth and their parents while neglecting the male youth perspectives. Many male youth are either partners or friends to their female counterparts and therefore their views on induced abortion are important as they may influence the practice of abortion in their partners.

This is a descriptive cross sectional study that assessed male youth’s perspectives towards induced abortion in Kiambaa Division. A total of 466 sampled respondents were interviewed using standardized pre-tested questionnaires for quantitative data. This data was collected through a household survey. A guide was used to gather qualitative data from four focus groups discussions held.

All study respondents were consenting male youths (aged 18-25) who had an average age of 21.17 years. Most of them were single (81.8%) . Half of them (50.4%) had secondary level of education. The main religion was protestant (52.2%) followed by the Catholics (44.6%). About half (53.6%) of the respondents indicated that they visited places of worship regularly. Only 15.2% of the respondents had regular income. These social demographic characteristics however did not influence the respondents’ perspectives towards induced abortion significantly.

Study findings indicate that most (78.6%)of the respondents disapproved of abortion. Even when the respondents were questioned on various circumstances to justify abortion more than half (56.2%) indicated no approval of abortion. On probing still at third (30.7%) of the respondents did not indicate any circumstance for approval. The circumstance that drew the greatest approval for abortion was when the mother’s life was threatened by the pregnancy (17.2% in spontaneous responses and 43.1% in probed responses)
Most of the respondents knew that abortion was illegal (86.2%). 6.9% thought that they were legal and 6.9% did not know the legal status of abortion. On asking them if they preferred abortion to be legalized only 16.6% said that abortion should be legalized while 82.9% were against it.

In the bivariate analysis, the respondents’ perspectives towards abortion were significantly influenced by their use of FP methods (P<0.05) and their previous involvement in abortion (P<0.05).
The study concluded that while the male youth were aware of the high prevalence of abortion, they still held a strong pro-life perspective. The negative attitude towards abortion was as a result of the associated morbidity and mortality.

Some of the recommendations of this study include the need to strategize on Information Education and communication (IEC) targeting the male youth, on ways of preventing unwanted pregnancies. This should focus particularly on the post coital contraception, sex education and advocacy for safe and legal abortion.