Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 July 2008
This article reports on women admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for incomplete, illegally induced abortion. Women with low complication rates more often had abortions induced by medical practitioners. These women were younger, of lower parity and better educated than women having abortions initiated by other practitioners. Poorly educated women from slum areas almost always had an abortion induced by a non-medical practitioner through the insertion of a solid object. These women experienced high complication rates and often required hysterectomies. This group also had high mortality rates. The drain on hospital resources needed to treat these abortion patients was great.