Family Care International (FCI) works with policymakers and program planners in Latin America and Africa to address the problem of unsafe abortion through policy change, improvement in the quality of care, and expanded postabortion care services. Of the estimated 40 million induced abortions that occur globally every year, at least 19 million are performed under unsafe conditions. Almost 68,000 women die as a result of complications of unsafe abortion and many millions more suffer serious complications.

The legal status of abortion has little impact on abortion rates, and unsafe abortions overwhelmingly occur in countries where access to abortion is highly restricted. Where safe abortion services are not available, services to treat the complications of unsafe abortion can consume up to 50% of hospital resources.

Most abortion-related deaths could be prevented if women had access to: comprehensive sexual and reproductive health-care services, including a full range of modern, safe, and effective methods of family planning; post-abortion care from trained professionals in a non-threatening environment; and safe abortions, where legal.

Improving Access to Safe Abortion

In 2005, FCI partnered with Ipas to develop Improving Access to Safe Abortion: Guidance on Making High Quality Services Available. This presentation package aims to foster understanding of this issue, enhance public discussion, promote partnerships, and encourage the provision of safe abortion services to the extent allowed by law. It is based primarily on the World Health Organization’s 2003 publication: Safe Abortion: Technical and Policy Guidance for Health Systems. The CD-ROM includes advocacy tools in English, Spanish, and Portuguese that can be used with a range of audiences, from policy-makers to health care providers, from members of the media to members of the community.

Postabortion Counseling and Community Education Materials

In Niger, FCI works with the government to introduce the country’s first postabortion care program. FCI trains health care providers to treat complications arising from unsafe abortions, provide comprehensive postabortion counseling and family planning as needed, and link women who have had abortions with other services.

FCI works with local organizations in East Africa to create educational materials to train health care providers to provide comprehensive counseling to women who have had unsafe abortions. To support these efforts, FCI developed Postabortion Counseling and Community Education Materials. Designed to enhance postabortion client counseling and community education related to unsafe abortion in English-speaking Africa, this set of materials includes: a counseling/education flipchart, a prototype client brochure, and a user’s guide designed for facility and programme managers.