Women's perceptions of person-centered comprehensive abortion care and associated factors in Northern Ethiopia: A facility-based cross-sectional study in a humanitarian setting
In humanitarian settings, women and girls face limited access to contraceptives, increasing the risk of unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and related complications. Strengthening abortion care is essential to ensure quality and accessibility in Ethiopia's humanitarian context. Evidence on person-centered abortion care remains limited. This study aimed to assess women's perceptions of person-centered comprehensive abortion care (PC-CAC) and identify associated individual, clinical, and facility-level factors in public health facilities in northern Ethiopia.
An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2023 to March 2024 in 31 health facilities, involving 1,642 women and girls who received abortion care. Data were collected using a standardised questionnaire, and perceived quality of PC-CAC was categorised into three levels based on percentile cut-offs.
Among the participants, 23.6% reported experiencing a high level of PC-CAC, 25.9% a low level, and 50.5% a medium level. The odds of experiencing high-level PC-CAC were higher among women and girls who did not experience abortion-related complications, received care at a health centre, and obtained abortion care at the first visited facility. The likelihood of experiencing high-level PC-CAC was lower among those whose pregnancy termination was due to rape and those admitted with incomplete abortion.
Only one in four women and girls experienced high-level PC-CAC. These findings underscore the need to standardise PC-CAC across facility types, with attention to improving care in hospitals and for women who are survivors of rape and those presenting with incomplete abortions.
This article relates to R2HC funded study: Improving access to Comprehensive Abortion Care Services among internally displaced women in Northern Ethiopia