After liberalizing Ethiopia’s abortion law in 2005, the government implemented programs designed to train health care providers, to equip facilities and expand the services they offer and to integrate abortion care into broader reproductive health services. These efforts have resulted in significant improvements in access to abortion and postabortion care in the country. A new study reveals that, although many procedures continued to occur outside health facilities, often under unsafe conditions, the share of abortions that took place in health facilities nearly doubled between 2008 and 2014.

These findings come from two new articles based on a study by the Guttmacher Institute and Ipas. The study was conducted in collaboration with the Ethiopian Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Ethiopian Public Health Association, with the support of Ethiopia’s Federal Ministry of Health.