Abstract
BACKGROUND: Various reasons have been cited in studies conducted in South Africa on why women legally terminate their pregnancies. We sought to determine the reasons for women to terminate their pregnancies legally and their contraceptive practices. This study was conducted at Soshanguve 3 Community Health Centre (CHC), located in a semi-rural zone in the north-west of Pretoria, Gauteng province of South Africa. METHOD: A cross-sectional study design was adopted in this study. RESULTS: Of the 250 respondents, high participation (23.2%) was noted amongst women aged 18-20 years. Eighty-three (33.2%) respondents did not have children, 108 (43.2%) had completed their secondary school education and 226 (90.4%) were Christian. Of the participants, 80% were single and 62.8% were unemployed. About 85.6% (214) of respondents had not had a previous abortion. A total of 24% of respondents requested abortion because they wanted to focus on their education, while 23.1% were not ready to be parents and 21.7% experienced financial difficulties. With regard to practice, all respondents had already used contraception and the most used contraceptive was the male condom (43.5%), followed by an injectable contraceptive (7.1%). CONCLUSION: While academic reasons, not being ready to be a parent and financial difficulties were named as the main reasons for terminating a pregnancy legally, the selected pregnant women at Soshanguve 3 CHC demonstrated an unsatisfactory practice of contraceptive measures.