Meeting women's health care needs after abortion

Authors

Dale Huntington

Document Type

Brief

Publication Date

2000

Abstract

Women who seek emergency treatment for abortion complications—bleeding, infection, and injuries to the reproductive tract system—should be a priority group for reproductive health care programs. These women often receive poor-quality services that do not address their multiple health needs. They may be discharged without counseling on postoperative recuperation, family planning (FP), or other reproductive health (RH) issues. Women who have had an induced abortion due to an unwanted pregnancy are likely to have a repeat abortion unless they receive appropriate FP counseling and services. Preventing repeat unsafe abortions is important for RH programs because it saves women's lives, protects women’s health, and reduces the need for costly emergency services for abortion complications. At the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, the world's governments called for improvements in postabortion medical services. As part of the resulting international postabortion care initiative, the Population Council’s Operations Research and Technical Assistance projects worked collaboratively to conduct research on interventions to improve postabortion care. This brief summarizes the major findings of this research and relevant studies by other international organizations.

Recommended Citation

Huntington, Dale. 2000. "Meeting women's health care needs after abortion," FRONTIERS Program Brief. Washington, DC: Population Council.

DOI

10.31899/rh2000.1036

Language

English

Project

Frontiers in Reproductive Health