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Insights from an expert group meeting on the definition and measurement of unsafe abortion.

  • Sedgh G Guttmacher Institute, New York, NY, USA. Electronic address: gsedgh@guttmacher.org.
  • Filippi V London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Department of Infectious Diseases Epidemiology, London, UK.
  • Owolabi OO London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Department of Infectious Diseases Epidemiology, London, UK.
  • Singh SD Guttmacher Institute, New York, NY, USA.
  • Askew I At time of expert meeting: Population Council, New York, NY, USA; World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
  • Bankole A Guttmacher Institute, New York, NY, USA.
  • Benson J Ipas, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
  • Rossier C University of Geneva, Institute of Demographic and Life Course Studies, Geneva, Switzerland.
  • Pembe AB Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
  • Adewole I University of Ibadan, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology College, College of Medicine, Ibadan, Nigeria.
  • Ganatra B World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
  • MacDonagh S Department For International Development, London, UK.
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  • 2016-04-11
Published in:
  • International journal of gynaecology and obstetrics: the official organ of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics. - 2016
Illegal abortion
Induced abortion incidence
Misoprostol
Unsafe abortion
Abortion, Criminal
Abortion, Induced
Female
Global Health
Group Processes
Humans
London
Misoprostol
Patient Safety
Pregnancy
World Health Organization
English Until recently, WHO operationally defined unsafe abortion as illegal abortion. In the past decade, however, the incidence of abortion by misoprostol administration has increased in countries with restrictive abortion laws. Access to safe surgical abortions has also increased in many such countries. An important effect of these trends has been that, even in an illegal environment, abortion is becoming safer, and an updated system for classifying abortion in accordance with safety is needed. Numerous factors aside from abortion method or legality should be taken into consideration in developing such a classification system. An Expert Meeting on the Definition and Measurement of Unsafe Abortion was convened in London, UK, on January 9-10, 2014, to move toward developing a classification system that both reflects current conditions and acknowledges the gradient of risk associated with abortion. The experts also discussed the types of research needed to monitor the incidence of abortion at each level of safety. These efforts are urgently needed if we are to ensure that preventing unsafe abortion is appropriately represented on the global public health agenda. Such a classification system would also motivate investment in research to accurately measure and monitor abortion incidence across categories of safety.
Language
  • English
Open access status
hybrid
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Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/43213
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