Women empowerment for abortion and family planning decision making among marginalised women in Nepal: a mixed method study
Abstract Background Women empowerment is multidimensional. Women’s education, employment, income, reproductive healthcare decision making, household level decision making and social status are vital for women empowerment. Nepal is committed to achieving women empowerment and gender equality, which directly affects the reproductive health issues. This can only be achieved by addressing the issues of the poor and marginalised communities. In this context, we aimed to find the association of women empowerment with abortion and family planning decision making among marginalised women in Nepal. Methods A mixed-method study was conducted at selected municipalities of Morang district of Nepal from February 2017 to March 2018. Cross sectional study was conducted among 316 married marginalised women of reproductive age (15–49 years) and key informants interview was conducted among 15 representative healthcare providers and local leaders. From key informants, data were analysed using the thematic framework method. Findings obtained from two separate analyses were drawn together and meta inferences were made. Results Women empowered above average were 50.6%. Current use of modern contraceptives were more among below average empowerment groups (p 0.041, OR 0.593 C.I. 0.36–0.98). We could not find any statistical significant differences among women empowerment with abortion knowledge (p 0.549); family planning knowledge (p 0.495) and women’s’ decision for future use of modern contraceptives (p 0.977). Most of key informants reported that unsafe abortion was into practice. Conclusions Women empowerment has no direct role for family planning and abortion decision making at marginalised communities of Morang district of Nepal. There was direct influence of different organisations for seeking healthcare services on abortion and family planning despite having women empowerment.