Volume 17 - Article 2 | Pages 23–58  

Attitudes towards abortion and contraception in rural and urban Burkina Faso

By Clémentine Rossier

This article is part of the Special Collection 5 "Anthropological Demography in Europe"

Abstract

Using results from the ethnographic literature and two qualitative studies on people’s representations of different means of birth control (abstinence, contraception, abortion) in two populations in Burkina Faso (one rural and one urban), we designed a multi-dimensional quantitative scale to measure individuals’ attitudes towards varied means of birth control. We applied it in two representative surveys in rural and urban Burkina Faso.
Relating individuals’ attitudes towards birth control to their socio-demographic characteristics and to their attitudes towards other life dimensions, and applying N. Elias’ theory of the civilization process, we seek to explain why abortion is less tolerated, while more widely practiced, in the city than in the villages.

Author's Affiliation

• Clémentine Rossier - Université de Genève, Switzerland EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Using Respondent-Driven Sampling to measure abortion safety in restrictive contexts: Results from Kaya (Burkina Faso) and Nairobi (Kenya)
Volume 50 - Article 47

Fertility among better-off women in sub-Saharan Africa: Nearing late transition levels across the region
Volume 46 - Article 29

Understanding the long term effects of family policies on fertility: The diffusion of different family models in France and Germany
Volume 22 - Article 34

France: High and stable fertility
Volume 19 - Article 16

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