Attitudes of rural Bangladesh physicians toward abortion.

The law in Bangladesh forbids abortion except to save a womans life. To determine the degree to which rural physicians in Bangladesh support the law this study surveyed the attitudes toward abortion of 376 physicians in rural health care centers. Virtually all of those interviewed (98.9%) indicated that they support the use of abortion in 1 or more circumstances not approved by the law. These attitudes and those of respondents in other surveys indicate that physicians and others approve of using abortion in circumstances proscribed by the current law which is based on the British Penal Code of 1860. (authors)