Strategies for the prevention of unsafe abortion

Unsafe abortion is one of the main causes of maternal mortality and severe morbidity in countries with restrictive abortion laws. In 2007, the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) created a Working Group on the Prevention of Unsafe Abortion and its Consequences (WGPUA). This led to a FIGO initiative with that aim which has the active participation of 43 FIGO member societies. The WGPUA has recommended that the plans of action of the countries participating in the initiative consider several levels of prevention shown to have the potential to successfully reduce unsafe abortions: (1) primary prevention of unintended pregnancy and induced abortion; (2) secondary prevention to ensure the safety of an abortion procedure that could not be avoided; (3) tertiary prevention of further complications of an unsafe abortion procedure that has taken place already, through high-quality postabortion care; and (4) quaternary prevention of repeated abortion procedures through postabortion family planning counseling and contraceptive services. This paper reviews these levels of prevention and the evidence that they can be effective.