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Insights from an expert group meeting on the definition and measurement of unsafe abortion
Author(s) -
Sedgh Gilda,
Filippi Veronique,
Owolabi Onikepe O.,
Singh Susheela D.,
Askew Ian,
Bankole Akinrinola,
Benson Janie,
Rossier Clementine,
Pembe Andrea B.,
Adewole Isaac,
Ganatra Bela,
MacDonagh Sandra
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
international journal of gynecology and obstetrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.895
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1879-3479
pISSN - 0020-7292
DOI - 10.1016/j.ijgo.2015.11.017
Subject(s) - abortion , unsafe abortion , medicine , misoprostol , principle of legality , safer , abortion law , incidence (geometry) , environmental health , medical emergency , pregnancy , family planning , law , computer security , population , research methodology , political science , biology , genetics , computer science , physics , optics
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.