Archives: Resources

Reproductive Justice: Crashing Maternal Mortality through reduced Unsafe Abortions

Despite abortion being legally restricted and permitted only to save a woman’s life, it remains widely practiced, often in unsafe conditions by untrained providers and quacks. Legal and policy barriers, limited access to safe abortion services, social stigma, inadequate reproductive health education, and pervasive social stigma drive many women to seek unsafe abortions. In the last 25 years, Ipas has built evidence showing the urgent need to save women’ life and crash maternal mortality. Yet, because safe abortion care remains hidden in secrecy and stigma, many women procure unsafe procedures, costing their lives and fueling preventable deaths.

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Assessment of the Bauchi State Law for Persons with Disabilities

Ipas Nigeria Health Foundation actively advocates for equitable health access for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). Collaborating with DisabilityLed Organizations (DLOs) and Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) in states including Bauchi, Jigawa, Gombe, Ogun, Anambra, and Akwa Ibom, Ipas supports the development and domestication of national and state disability policies.

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Drug sellers’ knowledge and practices, and client perspectives after an intervention to improve the quality of safe abortion care outside of formal clinics in Nigeria

In Nigeria, where abortion is legally restricted, individuals seek medication abortion drugs, including misoprostol, directly from pharmacies or drug sellers. However, knowledgeof drug sellers or patent medicine vendors(PMVs) dispensation practices and women’sexperience with self-management is limited and research suggests poor quality of services. This study assesses the knowledge and practices ofPMVs and women’s experiences after a harm reduction intervention to improve the provision of medication abortion using misoprostol.

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The availability of Misoprostol in pharmacies and patent medicine stores in two Nigerian cities

As the glaring inequity in maternal death ratios becomes more apparent between countries in theNorthern and Southern Hemispheres, health experts try to achieve a reduction in their own nations’ pregnancy-related deaths. Perhaps no research holds as much potential to make a difference in the developing world as research conducted on the gynaecological indications of misoprostol. The media tend to portray that misoprostol is widely available among private sector pharmaceutical distributors in Nigeria, yet evidence is lacking to that effect.

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Misoprostol for the Treatment of Incomplete Abortion in Nigeria

Despite legal restriction, induced abortions and resulting complications are common in Nigeria. Misoprostol administration for incomplete abortion was introduced in 3 Nigerian hospitals. The feasibility of the hospitals, patient and provider acceptability were assessed using questionnaire and interview guides administered to 205 women and 17 providers respective

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Assessing post‑abortion care using the WHO quality of care framework for maternal and newborn health: a cross‑sectional study in two African hospitals in humanitarian settings

Abortion-related complications remain a main cause of maternal mortality. There is little evidence on the availability and quality of post-abortion care (PAC) in humanitarian settings. We assessed the quality of PAC in two hospitals supported by an international organization in Jigawa State (Nigeria) and Bangui (Central African Republic, CAR).

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Strengthening healthcare providers’ capacity for safe abortion and postabortion care services in humanitarian settings: lessons learned from the clinical outreach refresher training model (S-CORT) in Uganda, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo

Fragile and crisis-affected countries account for most maternal deaths worldwide, with unsafe abortion being one of its leading causes. This case study aims to describe the Clinical Outreach Refresher Training strategy for sexual and reproductive health (S-CORT) designed to update health providers’ competencies on uterine evacuation using both medications and manual vacuum aspiration. The paper also explores stakeholders’ experiences, recommendations for improvement, and lessons learned.

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Improving health worker performance of abortion services: an assessment of post-training support to providers in India, Nepal and Nigeria

Health worker performance has been the focus of numerous interventions and evaluation studies in low- and middle-income countries. Few have examined changes in individual provider performance with an intervention encompassing post-training support contacts to improve their clinical practice and resolve programmatic problems. This paper reports the results of an intervention with 3471 abortion providers in India, Nepal and Nigeria.

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Public hospital costs of treatment of abortion complications in Nigeria

Unsafe abortion is a significant contributor to maternal mortality in Nigeria, and treatment of postabortion complications drains public healthcare resources. Provider estimates of medications, supplies, and staff time
spent in 17 public hospitals were used to estimate the per-case and annual costs of postabortion care (PAC) provision in Ogun and Lagos states and the Federal Capital Territory.

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Reasons for delay in reaching healthcare with severe abortion-related morbidities: Qualitative results from women in the fragile context of Jigawa state, Nigeria (AMoCo)

Maternal near-miss events are a key measure of maternal health; abortion-related complications are one source of near-miss events. To understand the pathway to care of women with severe abortion-related events in a fragile context, we conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with women who obtained treatment at a referral hospital in Jigawa State, Nigeria, in 2020–2021

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High severity of abortion complications in fragile and conflict‑affected settings: a cross‑sectional study in two referral hospitals in sub‑Saharan Africa (AMoCo study)

Abortion-related complications are one of the five main causes of maternal mortality. However, research about abortion is very limited in fragile and conflict-affected settings. Our study aims to describe the magnitude and severity of abortion-related complications in two referral hospitals supported by Médecins Sans Frontières and located in such settings in northern Nigeria and Central African Republic (CAR).

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Knowledge and Practices Among Medical Abortion Seekers in Southeastern Nigeria

Nigeria has restrictive abortion laws; unsafe abortion and its complications are major public health challenges. Access to reproductive health services in Nigeria, including medical abortion, is poor. We determined the socio-demographic characteristics, patterns of abortion practices, and experiences of medical abortions among abortion seekers in southeastern Nigeria.

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