Contraceptive usage among abortion seekers in Nigeria

A study on contraceptive usage among abortion seekers in 150 randomly selected health institutions in the most and the least urbanized states of the health zone B representing the South Western states of Nigeria was conducted over a period of 2 months. There were 1839 abortion seekers during the period. About 30.4% (559) of the respondents admitted to ever used any form of contraceptive methods. Most of the respondents who admitted to ever used any form of contraceptives i.e. 81.2% (454/559) were not using the contraceptive methods regularly and this cut across all the methods. Oral contraceptive pill was the commonest method used, though not on regular basis. The most frequent reason for not ever used contraceptive methods was ignorance. There is a need for intensification of strategies for promotion of use of family planning methods, which can be achieved through good counselling, sexuality education, and availability of cheap, and affordable contraceptive methods and services.