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To reduce deaths and disabilities from unsafe abortion, Ethiopia liberalized its abortion law in 2005 to allow safe abortion under certain conditions. This study aimed to measure how availability and utilization of safe abortion services has changed in the last decade in Ethiopia, drawing on results from nationally representative health facility studies conducted in Ethiopia in 2008 and 2014. Using the Safe Abortion Care Model as a framework of analysis, the study found that service availability and quality has increased, but that access to lifesaving comprehensive care still falls short of recommended levels.
This study sought to understand correlates of postabortion contraceptive use at the individual, family and abortion service delivery levels. Potential individual level correlates included contraceptive and abortion history and fertility intentions; family correlates included intimate partner violence (IPV), discordance in fertility intentions, and household decision-making; and service delivery correlates included procedure type and postabortion contraceptive counseling.
This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of a high-intensity model (HIM) and a low-intensity model (LIM) of behaviour change communication interventions in Bihar and Jharkhand states of India designed to improve women’s knowledge and usage of safe abortion services. Although both intervention types improved abortion knowledge, the HIM intervention was more effective.
Abortion is technically legal in Zambia, but the reality is far more complicated. This study describes the process and results of galvanizing access to medical abortion where abortion has been legal for many years, but provision severely limited. It highlights the challenges and successes of scaling up abortion care using implementation science to document two years of implementation. The findings provide a case study of medical abortion introduction in Zambia and offer important lessons for expanding safe and legal abortion access in similar settings across Africa.
The objective of this study was to understand intersections between intimate partner violence (IPV) and other constraints to women’s reproductive autonomy, and the influence of IPV on reproductive health. There were 457 participants included in the analysis and 118 (25.8%) had experienced IPV in the preceding year. IPV was associated with discordance in fertility intentions with husbands/partners and in-laws, with in-law opposition to contraception, with perceived religious prohibition of contraception, and with presenting unaccompanied. Ensuring women’s reproductive freedom requires addressing IPV and related constraints.
Available Here Decade of progress providing safe abortion services in Ethiopia: Results of national assessments in 2008 and 2014 Lost in the outrage over President Donald Trump’s reinstatement and expansion of the “global gag rule” was former South Car …
The February 2016 WHO declaration that congenital Zika virus syndrome constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern reacted to the outbreak of the syndrome in Brazil. But the government’s urging to contain the syndrome, which is associated with microcephaly among newborns, is confounded by lack of reproductive health services. Women with low incomes in particular have little access to such health services. The emergency also illuminates the harm of restrictive abortion legislation, and the potential violation of human rights regarding women’s health. Proposed suggestions for remedying the widespread health-care inequities in Brazil are instructive for other countries where congenital Zika virus syndrome is prevalent.
available here Decade of progress providing safe abortion services in Ethiopia: Results of national assessments in 2008 and 2014 This study aimed to identify the underlying factors that contribute to patient satisfaction with comprehensive abortion car …
In 2005, Ethiopia amended its penal code to expand the circumstances in which abortion is legal. Although the country has expanded access to abortion and postabortion care, the last estimates of abortion incidence date from 2008. This study collected data in 2014 and found that an estimated 620,300 induced abortions were performed in Ethiopia that year. The annual abortion rate was 28 per 1,000 women aged 15–49, an increase from 22 per 1,000 in 2008. The authors conclude that, although the increases in the number of women obtaining legal abortions and postabortion care are consistent with improvements in women’s access to health care, a substantial number of abortions continue to occur outside of health facilities, a reality that must be addressed. Year: 2016
For far too long, Malawians’ view of termination of pregnancy has condemned women and girls to either death or permanent disability. These are needless injuries and deaths that can be prevented if only we stop looking at termination of pregnancy as a crime, moral, faith or cultural issue-but rather as public health issue.
September 28 is the Global Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion. But is “safe and legal” enough? Why in the 21st century do we still need a day of action?
Prime Minister Trudeau has been slow to act on promises to advance access to safe abortion at home and abroad.
Available Here Decade of progress providing safe abortion services in Ethiopia: Results of national assessments in 2008 and 2014 As a part of an extensive health system strengthening program in Ethiopia, significant efforts have been made to increase t …
About one quarter of women in Bangladesh are denied menstrual regulation (MR) due to advanced gestation. Little is known about whether women denied MR seek abortion elsewhere, self-induce, or continue the pregnancy.
This study sought to explore abortion-related stigma at the community level as a barrier to women realizing their right to a safe, legal abortion. It found that abortion-related stigma plays a major role in a woman’s decision on whether to have a safe or unsafe abortion. Young unmarried women, in particular, bore the brunt of being stigmatized.
This study compared levels of abortion stigma in regions with high and low incidence of unsafe abortion in Kenya to explore whether abortion-related stigma is associated with incidence of unsafe abortion. Respondents from a county with higher incidence of unsafe abortion reported higher stigma scores. Age, marital status, type of abortion service, and socioeconomic status were all significantly associated with stigmatizing attitudes.
The presence of religious conservatives with an anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-trans agenda at the OAS is not new. But it is of increasing concern as they continue agitating to dismantle human rights while scenes of unprecedented violence play out across the world…As Orlando demonstrates, any setback to human rights, as designed by these groups, will only lead to more violence.
Contraception is an essential element of high-quality abortion care. However, women seeking abortion often leave health facilities without receiving contraceptive counselling or methods, increasing their risk of unintended pregnancy. This paper describes contraceptive uptake in 319,385 women seeking abortion in 2,326 public-sector health facilities in eight African and Asian countries. Ministries of Health integrated contraceptive and abortion services, with technical assistance from Ipas. Overall, postabortion contraceptive uptake was 73 percent. The findings demonstrate high contraceptive uptake when it is delivered at the time of the abortion, a wide range of contraceptive commodities is available, and ongoing monitoring of services occurs.
It is time for accountability and for concerted action. Millions of women in Brazil and throughout Latin America have already been living with constrained choices regarding their reproductive lives—Zika has further aggravated their situations.
Abortion has been legal in Nepal since 2002, and post-abortion care has been successfully integrated into hospitals. But that does not mean that women can easily obtain safe abortion services. The barriers are many, and women are often stigmatized for the decision to end a pregnancy.