Pregnancy Wastage among Married Women in South Korea

This paper reviews the role of induced abortions in the fertility decline in South Korea and estimates the covariates of type of pregnancy termination in recent years. The use of induced abortions have played an important role in fertility control in South Korea, even under nearly universal access to contraceptive services and restrictive law on induced abortions. Among pregnancies of women in reproductive ages in 2003, 23 per cent ended in induced abortions and ten per cent ended in spontaneous abortions or stillbirths. Pregnancies of women who marry at age 30 or later and who are employed have a high risk of ending in spontaneous abortions or stillbirths. Pregnancies that are not wanted as well as the pregnancies of women who are employed and live in small cities have high risk of ending in induced abortions. Reproductive health programmes need to make special efforts to minimize unwanted pregnancies as well as to protect wanted pregnancies.