THE DETERMINANTS OF INDUCED ABORTION AMONG TEENAGERS ATTENDING BAPTIST HIGH SCHOOL EDE, OSUN STATE.

Introduction: Abortion is a contentious issue with religious, moral, cultural and political dimensions. The doctrines of religious denominations in Nigeria frown at abortion making it hard for adolescents and young adults who have had it in the past to want to talk about it. Those who want to do it go to places where no one will recognize them, and want it done as quickly as possible to avoid stigmatization and mockery. The complications of induced abortions have been documented in many studies around the world but knowledge and attitudes about induced abortions among young people have been addressed in very few previous studies.Objectives: This study assessed the Determinants of induced abortion among teenagers attending Baptist High School Ede,Osun State. Methodology: A cross section descriptive study design was adopted. A simple random sampling method was used to select 177 respondents from purposely selected from teenagers attending baptist high school ede. Data was collected with a self administered questionnaires and analyzed by SPSS version 20.The questionnaire was divided into four sections: socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge about induced abortion, attitudes towards induced abortion and the practice of induced abortions.Results: Responses to knowledge and attitude statements were scored and graded as positive and for knowledge, then good and bad for attitude. The response rate was 70%, the majority of the respondents had positive,(30%) had negative knowledge. 70% of respondents had good attitude and 30% had a bad attitude towards induced abortion. 64% of the respondents had done an induced abortion while 38.9% supports induced abortion among students. Despite the good knowledge and negative attitude, induced abortion is still practiced and because of its illegal status in this country, it is done in hiding and often in dangerous places where complications are more likely to happen.