Abortion is the termination of pregnancy before fetal viability, which is conventionally taken to be less than 28 weeks from the last normal menstrual period. It can happen on its own (spontaneous abortion or "miscarriage"), or it can deliberately be caused by medical procedures (induced abortion).

Spontaneous abortion is the loss of pregnancy before fetal viability by itself (sometimes called early pregnancy loss or miscarriage)

Induced abortion is a deliberate termination of pregnancy before fetal viability; can be either safe or unsafe.

Reasons for Abortion

  • Education: fear of drooping from school or interruption of their studies.
  • Economic factors: fear for financial difficulty to raise the child.
  • Social condemnation: fear to what people or parents might think or say; to avoid bringing shame and condemnation on themselves and their family.
  • Having no stable relationship: common in adolescents and youth than in adults.
  • Failed contraception: contraceptive is often used inconsistently and incorrectly. Also less effective methods tend to be used by these age groups.
  • Coerced sex including rape and incest.
Abortion may be unsafe due to:
  • Safe service may not be accessible, affordable, or not permitted by law. This might cause adolescents to try self-induced or have the procedure by an unskilled medical or non-medical provider.
  • Cost and/or other reasons, adolescent women are also more likely to postpone abortion until after the first trimester, which makes the procedure riskier.

Legal provisions for safe abortion services in Ethiopia

A comprehensive care service delivery considers woman's individual circumstances such as woman mental and physical health needs, her personal situation, and her ability to access services. Reviewing these facts, the penal code of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopian has provided legal permission for safe abortion services.

Complications from unsafe abortions include bleeding, infection, injury to reproductive organs, intestinal perforation, and toxic reactions to substances or drugs used to induce abortion.

These complications may result in infertility or even death. Moreover, whether there are medical complications or not, adolescent women may face negative psychological and social consequences after abortion. They may feel sorrow or guilt, or they may encounter negative reactions from peers, families, providers and society at large.

Post-abortion care is a comprehensive service for treating women that present to health-care facilities after abortion has occurred spontaneously or after an attempted termination. The components of post-abortion care include:

  • Emergency treatment of abortion and potentially life-threatening complications.
  • Post-abortion family planning counselling and services.
  • Link between post-abortion emergency services and reproductive health care system.

Your role as a health extension worker is to educate adolescents and young people about safer sex, the use of family planning, and the negative consequences of unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion so that they can prevent its occurrence. Additionally, you have to aware adolescent and youths about the legal provision of safe abortion services thereby get safe abortion services in health facilities.

Last modified: Friday, 11 November 2016, 12:41 PM