Providing Quality Abortion Care: Findings From a Study of Six States in India

Chander Shekhar , International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Aparna Sundaram, Guttmacher Institute
Manoj Alagarajan, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Manas R. Pradhan, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Harihar Sahoo, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Although abortion has been legal in India since 1971, however, many women obtain illegal and potentially unsafe abortions. Very little research currently done on the issue of quality of abortion services. To fill this gap, this paper examines whether the quality of abortion is in line of the WHO’s recommendations by analyzing the Health Facility Survey, Unintended Pregnancy and Abortion Incidence in India(2015) data gathered from six major Indian states representing different regions. It finds that except Madhya Pradesh, fewer than half of facilities in the other states offer safe abortion services. Within each state, a higher proportion of private facilities offer MTP services than the public. Less than half offer WHO recommended manual vacuum aspiration method. Only between 6-26% facilities across states seek women’s consent alone for providing abortion. Against the WHO recommendation, between 8-26% facilities across states also require to adopt some method of contraception before providing abortion.

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 Presented in Session 1. Fertility, Family Planning, Sexual Behavior, & Reproductive Health 1