Relationship of Knowledge and Attitude Towards Legal Abortion Laws with the Performance of Midwives in Qazvin, Iran

bortion is the termination of pregnancy before 20 weeks of gestation or with the fetus weight less than 500 g at birth (1). Generally, abortion falls into three categories, including spontaneous or habitual abortion, criminal or illegal abortion, and therapeutic or legal abortion (2). The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 50,000,000 pregnancies (25%) annually lead to abortion (3). In this regard, the complications of illegal abortion are more than those of other abortions. Moreover, the complications of illegal abortion are among the most common causes of hospitalization in developing countries (4). Most mothers placed in an unsafe abortion situation refer to the hospital only after serious complications; therefore, many cases of induced abortion are never recorded and reported. An estimated assessment provided by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education indicated that 80,000 abortions annually occur in Iran (5). A Abstract