Low Socioeconomic Status leading to Unsafe Abortion-Related Complications in Rural Sukkur, Pakistan: A Sociological Analysis

Abstract

Complications from unsafe abortion continue to be an avoidable type of reproductive-health inequality in resource-poor settings. This piece translates the data of a PhD thesis from rural Sukkur, Sindh, Pakistan, into a journal article on the sociological understanding of the role of socioeconomic status, place of residence, availability of services, and knowledge about family planning on women's assessment of the safety of the abortion procedure. A cross-sectional study design surveyed 385 women from rural areas. A questionnaire was used and descriptive statistics, cross-tabulation and Pearson chi-square tests were applied. The outcome of interest was the safety level of the procedure, rated as safe, less safe, or definitely unsafe. The results reveal that 36.4% of participants considered it less safe and 32.7% definitely unsafe, compared to 30.9% who considered it safe. Family income per month was a significant predictor of the safety of the procedure, χ²(8, N = 385) = 22.614, p = .004. Place of residence was significant, χ²(2, N = 385) = 33.188, p < .001, with rural respondents more likely to be in the definitely unsafe category. Service availability showed the strongest association, χ²(4, N = 385) = 51.706, p < .001, and knowledge of modern family-planning methods was also significant, χ²(4, N = 385) = 18.932, p < .001. By contrast, educational status was not statistically significant, χ²(12, N = 385) = 10.842, p = .542. The article suggests that unsafe abortion pathways in rural Sukkur are not a matter of individual choice, but rather are shaped by poverty, lack of service provision, social embeddedness, delays in care-seeking, and limited conversion of family-planning knowledge into action. The results indicate a comprehensive approach to intervention, offering respectful post-abortion care, confidential counselling, strengthening of local services, transport and fee support and community-based stigma reduction.

Keywords: unsafe abortion; post-abortion complications; socioeconomic status; rural Sukkur; reproductive health; family planning; stigma; women's autonomy; Pakistan