Making Abortions Safe: A Matter of Good Public Health Policy and Practice

Globally, abortion mortality constitutes at least 13% of maternal mortality. Unsafe abortion procedures, untrained abortion providers, restrictive abortion laws and high mortality and morbidity from abortion tend to occur together. Preventing abortion mortality and morbidity in countries where they remain high is a matter of good public health policy, based on good medical practice, and an important part of initiatives to make pregnancy safer. This paper examines the changes in policy and health service provision required to make abortions safe. It is based on a wide-ranging review of published and unpublished sources. In order to be effective, public health measures must take into account the reasons why women have abortions, the kind of abortion services required and at what stages of pregnancy, the types of abortion service providers needed, and training, cost and counselling issues. The transition from unsafe to safe abortions demands: changes at national policy level; abortion training for service providers; the provision of services at the appropriate primary level health service delivery points; and ensuring that women access these services instead of those of untrained providers. Public awareness that abortion services are available is a crucial element of this transition, particularly among adolescent and single women, who tend to have less access to reproductive health services generally.