>>Available in PDF from the WHO website.

>>Available in French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian

>>To order a copy of the guidance in Polish, please contact the Federation for Women and Family Planning (Poland) at federacja@federa.org.pl.

Safe Abortion: Technical and Policy Guidance for Health Systems

Summary: Published by the World Health Organization (2003, ISBN 92 4 159034 3, 106 pages). The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 46 million pregnancies end in induced abortion every year, and nearly 20 million of these are estimated to be unsafe. WHO also estimates that 13 percent of pregnancy-related deaths can be attributed to complications resulting from unsafe abortion—an estimated 67,000 deaths annually. This publication recognizes that, in almost all countries in the world, abortion is legal to save the woman's life; in more than three-fifths of countries, it is allowed to preserve women's physical and mental health; and in about 40 percent, it is permitted in cases of rape or incest or fetal impairment.

The guidance was developed by WHO with input from numerous international experts on law, medicine, ethics, social science, and public health. It is a comprehensive overview of actions that health professionals and others both inside and outside of government can take to ensure the provision of safe, good-quality abortion services as allowed by law. Specifically, it offers an overview of the public health challenge, including clinical aspects of care, health system issues, and the legal, regulatory and policy environment for improving both quality and accessibility of care.

IWHC contributed to the development and technical review of the guidance and supported its translation into Portuguese and Polish. We are currently assisting in its distribution and training colleagues in its use at the regional and country level.

To order a copy of the Guidance, please contact Marketing and Distribution, World Health Organization, 20 Avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland (tel: +41 22 791 2476; fax: +41 22 791 4857; e-mail: bookorders@who.int). You can also download a summary, an online order form, or a PDF version of the full text here.

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