Background: Abortion has been for longtime the most mediatized political and psychosocial debate specifically its legalization. Attitudes differ from culture to culture and from state to state. In Rwanda, although women might come from different parts of the country, they have few differences in behaviors and cultural backgrounds. Thus, regarded the current movement of women towards the legalization of abortion worldwide, could abortion be a need for the Rwandan female population? Objectives: The study targeted attitudes of Rwandan women towards the legalization of abortion, with the main objective of assessing the knowledge and conception of abortion in Rwanda, the rights of women to terminate pregnancies, and the knowledge of related consequences. Methods: This is a Cross sectional study conducted in the ISPG (Institut Supèrieur Pédagogique de Gitwe) a Nursing School located in Ruhango district in the Southern Province. The study targeted female students who accepted voluntarily to participate in the survey. 10 classes of the 03 departments of the school were considered as strata. 204 female students were enrolled in the study, representing 50% of the 408 female students registered at ISPG for the year 2011; but only 175 (85.8%) responded to the questionnaire. The collection and analysis of data was done respectively with Epidata 3.1 and SPSS 16.0., and the e-review helped to enrich the literature. Results: Regardless of the cause, the overall abortion prevalence was 20.6%, with 30% in married and 14.4% in single women. We found that Abortion rate increases with age: 11% (18-24 years), 22% (25-32 years) and 65.5% (33-39 years). Abortion as the right of the woman was rejected with 80.6% of participants, herein 90.0% were married and 74.8% were single; 57.7% rejected it even despite the judgment or recommendation from the physician, and 35.4% agreed if it's only to protect the mother's life. In case abortion is requested by the woman, 68.6% didn't support the request of consent from the spouse, 73.1% rejected the consent from parents for minor females seeking abortion, and 70.3% rejected the consent if it's for the confidentiality of the procedure. 69.7% were aware of the complications of elective abortions to subsequent pregnancies, 52% knew the consequences to the fertility, and 72% have heard about the post-abortion depression. Conclusion: There is inconsistency of the legitimacy of abortion from the literature regarded the best interest of the fetus. Though, there is no universal right without restrictions including the fundamental right to express the personal choice, privacy, etc; hence the variability of regulations and laws by each State based on the benefits of its people either compelling woman's privacy and abortion surveillance or life at the beginning. Hereof, Rwanda has not yet openly legalized the abortion without strict medical conditions; and this is not willingly to happen very soon based on the attitudes and knowledge of Rwandan women for instance considering the high educated women that we studied, who significantly rejected the right of women to abortion, and additionally, showed at huge majority their awareness to subsequent and negative impact of abortion to their lives and to their psychosocial conditions. © 2013 - Rwanda Medical Journal.
