Unsafe abortion is a significant contributor to worldwide maternal mortality; however, abortion law and policy liberalization could lead to drops in unsafe abortion and related deaths. This review provides an analysis of changes in abortion mortality in three countries where significant policy reform and related service delivery occurred. Drawing on peer-reviewed literature, population data and...

BACKGROUND Although abortion is technically legal in Zambia, 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 2 years of implementat...

CONTEXT Induced abortion is one of the most common procedures performed among women in the United States. However, 87% of all counties had no abortion provider in 2000, and little is known about the attitudes and intentions of future health care providers, including advanced clinical practitioners, regarding abortion provision. METHODS During March 2002, first- and second-year students in hea...

Stigmatization is a deeply contextual, dynamic social process; stigma from abortion is the discrediting of individuals as a result of their association with abortion. Abortion stigma is under-researched and under-theorized, and the few existing studies focus only on women who have had abortions. We build on this work, drawing from the social science literature to describe three groups whom we p...

BACKGROUND Most islands in the West Indies do not have liberal laws on abortion, nor laws on pregnancy prevention programmes (contraception). We present results of a literature review about the attitude of healthcare providers and women toward (emergency) contraception and induced abortion, prevalence, methods and juridical aspects of induced abortion and prevention policies. METHODS Articles...

Background Unsafe abortion remains a public health problem in Ghana with colossal costs to families, communities and health services, evident in persistently high maternal mortality ratios. It is well known that access to and utilization of family planning, safe and legal abortion services and quality post abortion care could help curtail the ramifications of unsafe abortions. Ghana has a liber...

Mortality by abortion has continuously decreased over the past fifty years in Chile. In fact, maternal death as a result of an induced abortion has become an exceptionally rare phenomenon in epidemiological terms (a risk of 1 in 4 million pregnant women of fertile age or 0.4 per 100,000 life births for abortion of any type, excluding ectopic pregnancy). After abortion became illegal in 1989, de...

CONTEXT In Mexico, where abortion remains largely illegal and clandestine, reliable data on induced abortion and related morbidity are critical for informing policies and programs. The only available national estimate of abortion is for 1990, and demographic and socioeconomic changes since then have likely affected abortion incidence. METHODS This study used official statistics on women treat...

BACKGROUND The long-term safety of surgical abortion in the first trimester is well established. Despite the increasing use of medical abortion (abortion by means of medication), limited information is available regarding the effects of this procedure on subsequent pregnancies. METHODS We identified all women living in Denmark who had undergone an abortion for nonmedical reasons between 1999 ...