For the second pregnancy, I decided to abort immediately. In fact, I realized that my 

mother was right. Bringing up a baby was no small task. I needed to be employed or have 

money to care and take the child for antenatal, but since I'm not in a position to do that I 

had to abort it. He [boyfriend] said that if that was my decision, then so be it. I could go 

and have the abortion. [Pauline] 

One participant who had had six pregnancies while in her teens described using abortion 

twice in a row to space her first and second children. After one abortion at age 13, she had a 

child at 14, then terminated a pregnancy when she was 15 and again at 16. At age 18, she had a 

second child with the father of the first.  

Being in school was also cited as a reason for getting an abortion. The discussion around 

the reason why to have an abortion when the girl was in school, however, was not that it would 

ruin the girl's future if she had to drop out of school, but to avoid shame. For example, a 16 year 

old girl impregnated by an older schoolmate described her partner's reaction as follows: 

He said I was going to school so he made me have an abortion because he didn't want it 

to get out. [Pauline]  

This participant said that a relative offered to pay for her to attend another school after 

the abortion, but that she met another boy and got pregnant again before she could go back to 

school. Another participant said that she and her boyfriend obtained an abortion because the 

couple did not want to stay together. The health of the teenager was never cited as a reason for 

terminating a pregnancy, although it was cited as a reason for not having an abortion. 

In these situations the boyfriend usually paid for the abortion, sometimes with the help of 

the girl; parents were generally not included in the decisionmaking process. In fact, participants 

said that they generally kept the abortion a secret.  

When parents and guardians found out about a planned abortion, they either agreed to it 

or imposed another plan. For example, one participant said that when she became pregnant at 16 

and her boyfriend gave her the money to get an abortion, her aunt told her to go ahead. 

I told my auntie that he gave me the money to have an abortion. She said if he has said 

that and given me the money then I should go and do it. 

One participant who agreed with her boyfriend that she wanted to have an abortion 

described what happened when both their families became involved in deciding whether to 

terminate the pregnancy. 

I wanted to abort them all. . . He [boyfriend] also wanted me to abort all of them. He 

gave me the money to go and have the abortions. . . in fact, the reason was that he could 

not afford to take care of a family. . . My mother noticed I was pregnant. . . she was very 

disappointed and talked me into aborting the pregnancy. But my boyfriend's father is a 

lawyer. He was against the abortion. His reason was that, supposing something went 

wrong, he could be held responsible. So I should not abort. But then the reaction of my 

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