Unsafe abortion continues to be an important factor affecting women’s reproductive lives and survival in the developing world, where 98% of all unsafe abortions occur. It has not declined in recent years, continuing at an annual rate of 16 per 1000 women of reproductive age in the developing world according to updated information for 2008. Laws that are highly restrictive help to explain the prevalence of unsafe abortion; however, even in some countries where the law permits abortion under broad indications, difficulties in accessing legal and safe services mean that high proportions of...
In this commentary co-authored by VSI and the Regional Experts’ Summit Group, 35 ob/gyns and public health experts from 12 countries in Africa call for political commitment to expanding access to misoprostol for its many uses in maternal health.
Unsafe abortion is one of leading causes of maternal mortality in Ethiopia, accounting for 30% of maternal deaths. With the 2005 revision of the criminal code, Ethiopia has one of the most liberal abortion laws on the continent and abortion-related services, including postabortion care (PAC), are available in both public and private facilities.
This brief, written in French, presents the findings from a study on misoprostol for treatment of incomplete abortion and miscarriage in Madagascar which demonstrate the safety and acceptability of the medication-based service. VSI supported partner Marie Stopes Madagascar in its implementation.
VSI, AMOG and the Bixby Center at UC Berkeley conducted operations research addressing unsafe abortion with misoprostol in Mozambique. This research brief demonstrates that misoprostol is a promising alternative to surgical methods of treating incomplete abortion, and that expanding the level of health facility and provider trained on misoprostol can increase women’s access to these essential services.
This toolkit is designed to help district or national-level clinicians, facility managers or program managers initiate the use of misoprostol as a medical treatment for incomplete abortion or integrate misoprostol into existing postabortion care services.
This letter, published in International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, presents the benefits of misoprostol for use in treating incomplete abortion. Its relative ease of use for this indication and cost-effectiveness, render misoprostol a key tool for scaling up access to postabortion care services in remote areas where deaths from unsafe abortion are common.
Information, education and communication (IEC) campaign sample from a postabortion care (PAC) operations research project in Rwanda using the local Kinyarwanda language.
A pocket reference for clinicians, this Contraceptive Pocket Guide details the contraceptive methods that can be used after postabortion care services both with misoprostol and manual vacuum aspiration (MVA).
This brief summarizes the final results of a comprehensive postabortion care (PAC) pilot program conducted by the Rwanda Ministry of Health and VSI to address maternal deaths due to unsafe abortion. The results demonstrate that enabling mid-level providers at health centers to provide PAC through the integration of misoprostol as a treatment method increases the availability of PAC services and brings them closer to women.
