Abstract

PIP: UN policies have been narrowly focused and have created within the international community the disintegration of family planning and postabortion family planning services. Local policy markers were thus encouraged to circumvent the difficult policy issues surrounding abortion. The result was unsafe abortion as the leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity. Health professionals must resist the pressures to segregate abortion from reproductive health. The destructive effect is evident in the lives lost, the chronic disability or injury. and the deterioration of families. Death, disability, and injury is preventable in the case of abortion. The current political climate has changed and there is more support throughout the world for dealing with unsafe abortion. Efforts were made in the formation of a 25-member technical working group in Bellagio, Italy, in February 1993 to focus attention on reintegrating abortion and family planning. Conference participants represented a range of professions related to reproductive health needs. The group consensus was that abortion care facilities and family planning programs must be responsive to provision of family planning services to abortion patients. Family planning centers must serve all women and provide referral when abortion services are not part of the program. Abortion care providers must be aware of family planning and create links with providers of family planning. High-quality services are the goal that can be achieved by designing programs to meet the need of individuals rather than an arbitrary set of standards. Post-abortion family planning can be improved despite restrictive laws and must not be ignored until laws have changed. Political and managerial will is required in order to improve access to a full range of reproductive health services for women. It is an ethically responsible mandate to facilitate access to safe, appropriate contraceptive information and services following abortion.