Monitoring safe abortion services in Ethiopia: testing a model to improve service availability, use and quality

Janie Benson, Ipas
Solomon T Abebe, Ipas
Tibebu Alemayehu, Ipas
Karen Otsea, Ipas
Joan Healy, Ipas

The adoption of indicators to measure improvements in services to treat emergency obstetric complications (EMOC) has been an important strategy to reduce maternal mortality. Complications of unsafe abortion, while comprising 13% of maternal deaths, are only partially addressed in the EMOC model. This paper reports on the application of a tools package to monitor safe abortion care (SAC) in Ethiopia. The SAC package includes a set of indicators to assess the availability, distribution, utilization and quality of services and a group of essential clinical services called “signal functions.” Findings are presented from a prospective study of 31 public facilities in the Tigray region in which providers recorded abortion cases and calculated SAC indicators for a one-year period. Service availability and distribution will be mapped against population, while trends in service delivery will be tracked. The SAC package offers a feasible approach for improving a long-neglected but critical service for women.