THE LEGALISATION OF ABORTION AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE SEXUAL BEHAVIOURS OF ADOLESCENTS: AN EXAMINATION OF FCT RESIDENTS

ABSTRACT: This study was carried out on abortion legalization and its impact on sexual practices of youths: a study of FCT residents. To achieve this 3 research questions were formulated. The survey design was adopted and the simple random sampling techniques were employed in this study. The population size comprise of selected residents of the Federal Capital Territory. In determining the sample size, the researcher conveniently selected 266 residents while 259 were returned and validated. Self-constructed and validated questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected and validated questionnaires were analyzed using standard deviation. The result of the findings reveals that the arguments for the legalization of abortion include; criminalization of abortion does not dissuade women from having abortions,

criminalization of abortion violates the fundamental human rights of women and girls, criminalization of abortion causes women to resort to unsafe abortion methods, and criminalization of abortion increases mortality and health complications caused by unsafe abortions. In regard to the findings, the study recommends that abortion though legalized, should be fully regulated. Also, youths should be made aware of the dangers of abortion.