Induced abortion in Cameroon: between the clandestineness and the legality

Samuel Kelodjoue, Université de Dschang
Louise Moyo, Université de Dschang

Abortion is one of the oldest methods of preventing unwanted births and until recently one of the most hazardious. The rate of fertility fell in Cameroon since 1976, averaging up to 6.4 n in 1978 and 5.8 in 1991 then from 5,4 children by woman in 1996 to 5.0 in 2004. The use of the modern and traditional contraception is still average in Cameroon. 54 per cent of women interrogated in 2004 declared to have used a contraceptive method. Although abortion is a taboo, it is not some less rife in Cameroon. One can wonder if the recourse to the induced abortion in this population group is not a means of birth control facing, a material poverty, a lack of information and the difficulties of access to contraceptive methods. Would it not be more logical that one considers a planning or a control of the births without legalising abortion?