bands’ revisions may in fact cancel each other out depending on who does more of such ‘revising’ of preferences.[98] In the next sections I focus on the cases of three couples that show how ‘unmet need’ can be masked or overstated.[99]
Nana and Nortey: When ‘unmet need’ is not really unmet need
Nana is a 44 year-old middle-management employee and has been married to Nortey, a 53 year-old accountant for over 12 years. Together they have a 13 year — old daughter. In the survey Nana says that at the time of her last pregnancy she wanted to ‘wait’ to have the child while Nortey says he wanted the child ‘then’ indicating that Nana had an ‘unmet need’ for spacing. In the interview Nana says, however, that the last time she got pregnant she did want the child ‘then’ while Nortey says he wanted to ‘wait’ indicating that in reality Nortey was the one with an ‘unmet need’ (for spacing). Nana’s story is a sad one. Over a year after the birth of her daughter she became pregnant again, and, she explains, decided to have an abortion for a number of reasons. First, her first daughter had been born by Caesarean section, which scared her. She clarifies further, “I was not ready and I thought it was too early”.Yet her daughter was one and a half at the time she became pregnant, meaning that the culturally acceptable gap of two years between siblings would have been met by the time the next child was born. As we talk further the real reason why she had the abortion surfaces; her husband was very angry that she had become pregnant when he had ‘instructed’ her to use family planning. In other words, it was Nana’s failure to use contraception that resulted in the (for Nortey) ‘mis-timed’ pregnancy. Nana now reveals that for her the pregnancy was not mistimed when she concludes, “If he wanted it I would have just carried it”.
I: What you are saying is that if he had said go ahead you would have had the baby?
R: (sadjy) Yes.
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Nortey did not specifically ask Nana to have an abortion; however, his response to the news of her pregnancy was so severe and hurtful that she went and had one based on her interpretation of his response. Sadly for Nana, she has not been able to become pregnant since then. Sadder still for her, Nortey has since then had a son with another woman (and had his need for a child met). It was not that Nana’s husband, Nortey did not want any more children when Nana had the abortion. His ideal number, he says, would have been three, “plus a mistake, four at most”. I ask Nortey why Nana had an abortion since she has clearly articulated she would have wanted more children, and since Nortey himself seemed not to have achieved his ideal number at the time of the abortion either. Apparently the timing of the pregnancy was inconvenient for Nortey. This was conditioned by his
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Whose ‘Unmet Need’ Dis/Agreement about Childbearing among Ghanaian Couples
beliefs that the husband is the one with the primary responsibility for providing for the family. He and Nana were not living together at the time (she was living with her parents) because Nortey was not yet able to provide the family with an adequate place to live. Further, he argues, their first daughter, who was experiencing some developmental delays, was not independent enough to take second place for her mother’s care.
R: We were all saying that that shouldn’t happen because the child needed time to grow up, and all that. So when it came we were all upset, in fact I was more than she was […] because I had advised her earlier on to go for this family planning, and apparently she didn’t even consider it […] because she thought she was already late in starting childbearing, so probably her friends were saying have it, have it, that kind of thing [emphasis added].
I: So were you both satisfied with the decision to terminate?
R: I was okay with it, but she was not happy about it. It was a messy situation, because I wasn’t expecting it […] my reaction was so bad and the next time I came she had gone for it. And what I asked her to do before and she didn’t do (laughs) now she went there.
I: Has she never complained subsequently?
R: Both of us have complained; she would have wanted more kids, indeed I would have too, I had an ideal number, but I took it that if I didn’t have I wouldn’t worry too much. But she felt bad, because she knows how much I love kids. So we discuss it occasionally, she expresses her desires, wishing it were stillpossible, but allattempts have beenfutile, wejustpass it off as a joke and carry on.
It is interesting that Nortey views the abortion as a consequence of Nana’s failure to practise contraception when he had instructed her to do so. That Nana’s disappointment at not being able to have a child subsequently could be passed off as “a joke” also seems particularly insensitive given that Nortey has had a child outside the marriage, while he himself expresses intolerance for adultery. However, Nortey simply reveals his view that he has the right to determine his and Nana’s reproductive behaviour. What the data reveal are that if a husband feels strongly enough about not having a child, and the husband is the dominant partner, he has the option to suggest that his wife have an abortion. Further, in such a situation, during the survey the wife may rationalize the action taken by indicating the child was unwanted at the time of the pregnancy. She is measured as having an ‘unmet need’, when the ‘unmet need’ is really her husband’s. The fact that I modelled my survey instrument on the GDHS allows me to point to some limitations in the survey questions, as posed, for the measurement of ‘unmet need’. The fact that no question is asked about past preferences regarding pregnancies which were terminated is an important gap in the measurement of ‘unmet need’. While anecdotal evidence suggests that most abortions are performed on young, single women,[100] the possibility of terminating an unwanted pregnancy cannot be ruled out for married persons. It would be useful for future surveys to ask—in cases
Arnfred Page 128 Wednesday, March 3, 2004 2:38 PM