Adapting the WHO recommendations on health worker roles for safe abortion to a country setting: A case study from India
Authors
Vinoj Manning
Ipas Development Foundation, New Delhi, India
Bela Ganatra
UNDP‐UNFPA‐UNICEF‐WHO-World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP), Geneva, Switzerland
Medha Gandhi
Ipas Development Foundation, New Delhi, India
Anchita Patil
Independent Public Health Consultant, Delhi, India
Keywords:
Advocacy, Comprehensive abortion care, India, Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971, Task‐sharing
Abstract
In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a guideline on the role of health workers in providing safe abortion and postabortion contraception, with evidence‐based recommendations on the range of providers who can perform interventions to provide safe abortion, postabortion care, and postabortion contraception. The WHO guideline is global in nature and must be contextualized to individual country settings. The present paper compares the scenario in India, including the legal and policy frameworks, with the WHO guidelines. It provides legal and policy recommendations that are needed to improve access to comprehensive abortion care in India, with a focus on expanding the provider base. The process used to develop these recommendations was a combination of empirical evidence gathering and multistakeholder consultations. An outcome of this exercise was a policy brief entitled “Improving access to comprehensive abortion care in India with focus on expanding provider base,” which is used as an advocacy tool.
Keywords: Advocacy, Comprehensive abortion care, India, Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971, Task‐sharing
Click on "Archives" to access the full archive of scientific preprints. You may use the categories and the search functionality to find select preprints you're interested in.
