Market Excel, a research company in India, generously made their panel available to Untold Research in order to conduct a survey on the impact of COVID-19. Immediately, Untold Research jumped at this opportunity to measure the impact COVID-19 has had on access to abortion and other vital reproductive health services as well as public opinion on expanding abortion access in India. Please note, due to the nature of panel research, the findings are not reflective of India’s entire population. However, it does provide a valuable snapshot into how Indian women view current abortion laws and their desire to see the legal conditions under which abortions can be sought expanded.
In advance and support of International Safe Abortion Day, Untold Research is making this research available for free download here. Please feel free to use and share at will! If you have any questions about this research, please do not hesitate to reach out to Kate Vasiloff at kate@untoldresearch.com.
Fundamentally, do you agree or disagree women should be allowed to decide when and whether she has a child?
WIDE ACCEPTANCE FOR TRUSTING WOMEN
More than four in five (85%) women in India agree “women should be allowed to decide when and whether she has a child,” including 88% of married women. In fact, nearly one-half (48%) of women across the country strongly agree with this and support is geographically widespread, from Karnataka (95%) to Delhi (92%) to Gujarat (91%).
Since 1971, terminating pregnancies has been legal in India during the first 20 weeks of a pregnancy, with the approval of registered medical practitioners, and under specific circumstances, such as to save a woman’s life, to preserve a woman’s physical health, to preserve a woman’s mental health, in cases of rape or incest, and in cases of fetal impairment. Do you agree or disagree pregnancy termination should continue to be legal in India under these conditions?
MAJORITY SUPPORT FOR CURRENT AND EXPANDED LEGAL PREGNANCY TERMINATION CONDITIONS
Under the current parameters, four in five women (81%) believe “pregnancy termination should continue to be legal in India” and a majority (58%) believe the window of eligibility should be expanded from 20 weeks to 24 weeks. Again, support for this expansion spans the entirety of the country, from Delhi (69%) to Telangana (66%) to Tamil Nadu (65%), all age groups, and women at all income levels.
NEEDED NOW MORE THAN EVER
During COVID-19, one in ten Indian women (10%) have needed pregnancy termination services, with a majority (57%) being unable to secure such services, often because health facilities were closed for COVID-19 care only (27%), they could not leave a containment zone (26%), or they had no means of transportation (25%), likely do to the shutdown of public transportation systems. Given these limitations, two in five women wishing to terminate their pregnancies (43%) found other – often unsafe means – to end the pregnancy, one-third (34%) are carrying the unwanted pregnancy to term, and one in five (22%) are still struggling to find a way to terminate the pregnancy.
All other requirements being equal, do you agree or disagree the time frame in which women can receive an abortion should be increased from 20 weeks to 24 weeks?
METHODOLOGY
Untold Research conducted this non-probabilistic online survey between July 3 and August 8, 2020, among 2,776 women ages 18-49 across India. Due to the limitations of the sample, respondents all have, at minimum, completed higher secondary school, belong to households earning at least 30,001 rupees, and likely live in urban areas. Therefore, when terms like “in India,” “throughout the country,” or “among women” are used, know this means within the universe of this survey and does not reflect a true representation of all women throughout the country.