The World Health Organisation has updated its guidelines on abortion care, in a bid to protect the health of women and girls and help prevent over 25 million unsafe abortions that currently occur annually.
“Being able to obtain safe abortion is a crucial part of health care,” said Craig Lissner, acting Director for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research at WHO. “Nearly every death and injury that results from unsafe abortion is entirely preventable. That’s why we recommend women and girls can access abortion and family planning services when they need them.”
The guidelines includes recommendations on many simple primary care level interventions that improve the quality of abortion care provided. These include task sharing by a wider range of health workers; ensuring access to medical abortion pills, which mean more people can obtain safe abortion services, and making sure that accurate information on care is available to all those who need it.
For the first time, they include recommendations on telemedicine, which helped support access to abortion and family planning services during the COVID-19 pandemic.