Changing Patterns of Child-spacing and Abortion in a Northern Nigerian Town

For many Hausa Muslim women in the town of Zaria in northern Nigeria, abortion is morally reprehensible and should not be openly discussed. Nonetheless, in the past, induced abortion was considered morally preferable to pregnancy prior to weaning a nursing child. Women then used medicinal herbs and other organic materials as abortifacients to maintain intervals between births. More recently, however, shortened periods of postpartum abstinence and reduced child-spacing appear to be altering the practice of abortion in Zaria. These changes are attributed, in part, to women's attendance at government and Islamic schools beginning in the late 1970s where they learned that postpartum abstinence over forty days and that two years of nursing were not necessary. The appearance of a pregnancy within a year of childbirth is no longer considered to be disgraceful. Induced abortion now may be less common for married women although a number of Zaria women reported experiencing spontaneous abortions. Yet if education has led to a decline in induced abortion among married women, it may be contributing to an increase in abortion among unmarried secondary school students. Until recently, many Hausa women married at the ages of 13 or 14, thus precluding the need for abortion. Nowadays, however, young women seeking secondary education may choose to postpone marriage and childbearing until they have completed their schooling--often when they are 17 years old, thus increasing the possibility of premarital pregnancy and abortion. This paper examines these changing patterns of abortion and child-spacing in relation to women's education, based on research conducted in Zaria from 1994 to 1996.