JORIND 15(2) December, 2017. ISSN 1596-8303. www.transcampus.org/journal; www.ajol.info/journals/jorind 16 FACTORS INFLUENCING ABORTION AMONG UNDERGRADUATES OF UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN Seun Nurudeen Akorede Department of Health Promotion and Environmental Health Education, University of Ilorin, Ilorin E-mail:akorede.sn@unilorin.edu.ng +2348130576223 Oluwatobi Daniel Nofiu Department of Physical and Health Education, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria Abubakar Maimuna Aliyu Department of Nursing Services, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria Yusuf Bello Kaduna State College of Midwifery, Tudun Wada, Kaduna Mustapha Abdulkadir Adeleke and Ogbe Deborah Department of Physical and Health Education, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria Abstract The study investigated the factors influencing abortion among undergraduates of University of Ilorin. The objectives of the study were to determine influence of Teenage pregnancy and Inadequate sex education on abortion among undergraduates of University of Ilorin. A descriptive research design of the survey method was used for the study. The targeted population of this study comprised undergraduates of University of Ilorin. A random sampling techniques was used to select 254 Respondents from three faculties and nine departments. The designed questionnaire was validated by three experts and test - retest method was adopted to test for reliability of this instrument PPMC to analyze the two test, 0.86r was obtained. The data collected was analyzed with the use of Chi- square (χ 2 ) at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The results indicated that the two hypotheses formulated were rejected, which implies that teenage pregnancy is a significant causes of abortion with x² value of 124.56 >table x² value of 16.919 at the df of 9 @0.05, inadequate sex education is a significant causes of abortion with x² value of 160.80 >table x² value of 16.919 at the df of 9 @0.05. Based on this findings recommendations were Made that Parents should work hard to provide for the needs of their children in order to Prevent unwanted pregnancy resulting to abortion and sex education should be made compulsory at all levels of education. Keywords: Abortion, teenage, pregnancy, sex education Introduction Abortion is the termination of pregnancy before 20 weeks gestation calculated from date of onset of last menses. An alternative definition is delivery of a fetus with a weight of less than 500g. if abortion occurs before 12 weeks gestation, it is called early from 12 to 20 weeks it is called late (Obstetrics & Gynecology, 2008) Furthermore, unsafe abortion causes 47,000 deaths and 5 million hospital admissions each year. The World Health Organization recommends safe and legal abortion be available to all women. Around 56 million abortions occur each year in the world, with a little under half done unsafely. Abortion rates changed little between 2003 and 2008, before which they decreased for at least two decades as access to family planning and birth control increased. As of 2008, 40% of the world’s women had access to legal abortions without limits as to reason. Countries that permit abortions have different limits on how late in pregnancy abortion are allowed ( Shah & Ahmed, 2009). In contrast, Akande, (2014) opined that teenage pregnancy is a public health problem and it is also a social problem that is on the increase. With poor sexual education, low contraceptive use, the consequence is unintended pregnancy. Among secondary school student in Ibadan 5.7% of sexually active females had ever been pregnant and 17.0% of sexually active male student had impregnated a girl. All the females who had pregnancy in the study population had ever had abortion and 87.5% of the males that had ever gotten a girl pregnant told the girls to abort the pregnancy. Sadly, all abortions were induced and done by unqualified personnel Aderibigbe, Araoye, Akande, Musa, Monehin, & Babatunde, 2011).