Technical Areas

Each year in the developing world, an estimated 78,000 women a year or approximately 15 percent of all women die is because of complications of unsafe abortion. Millions more suffer serious illness and infertility. To address these severe health problems and to reduce maternal death, USAID funds postabortion care (PAC) programs that comprehensively address women's needs through three critical elements: emergency treatment for complications of spontaneous or induced abortion; postabortion family planning counseling and services to prevent future unintended pregnancies; STI and HIV counseling and or testing for HIV as resources permit; and community empowerment through community awareness and mobilization. Postabortion care is a programmatic priority for the Bureau for Global Health and is a key intervention in the pathway to maternal survival and reduction of repeat abortion

USAID Postabortion Care Resources

• Global Evaluation of USAID's Postabortion Care Programs
  This report is the result of a global evaluation of postabortion care conducted by USAID in 2001 and includes case studies of Bolivia, Ghana, Kenya, and Nepal.
  
  
• USAID Postabortion Care Strategy Paper - October 2004 [PDF, 762KB]
  The overall goal of USAID's PAC strategy is to reduce maternal mortality, morbidity, and repeat abortions.
  
  
• USAID's Postabortion Care Model [PDF, 762KB]
  • III. Core Components of the PAC Model
  • Appendix C: USAID Global and Country Results Framework, Indicators, and Commentary for Use
    

Postabortion Care Community Mobilization

• Mobilizing Communities for PAC Services [PDF, 2MB]
  This article from The Michigan Fellows Newsletter, published by the USAID-funded Populations Fellows Programs, describes the implementation of Bolivia's first PAC community mobilization model.

Technical Briefs

• Family Planning Prevents Abortion [PDF, 149KB]
  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), complications of unsafe abortion are responsible for 13 percent of all maternal deaths
  
  
• Postabortion Family Planning Benefits Clients and Providers [PDF, 559KB]
  Provision of family planning methods is a central feature of postabortion care. Ensuring reliable onsite availability of family planning methods for all clients following abortion or miscarriage can result in benefits for clients, providers, and programs.
  
  
• Population Reports — Care for Postabortion Complications: Saving Women's Lives [PDF, 3MB]
  In developing countries each year more than half a million women die from maternal causes, nearly all of these deaths could be prevented. Efforts to prevent maternal deaths from complications of unsafe abortion are crucial but inadequate in most of the world. Providing appropriate medical care immediately could save many thousands of women's lives. Offering family planning could prevent many future unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions.

Research on Postabortion Care

• Operations Research: Expanding PAC Services [PDF, 696KB]
  This paper reports the findings of USAID-funded operations research in Senegal that examined the feasibility of introducing and improving PAC services in rural areas.
  
  
• Operations Research: Reducing Repeat Abortions [PDF, 2.8MB]
  This paper reports the findings of USAID-funded operations research in Perm, Russia, that studied the effectiveness of different models of PAC family planning services at reducing repeat abortions