Objective
In 2008 an estimated 13 million induced abortions were conducted in China. Induced abortions are associated with a high risk of injury or long-term physical and psychological morbidity and a heavy social and economic burden. Most abortions occur in cities and the epidemic affects young and unmarried women as well as rural-to-urban migrant women.
The large number of abortions is primarily due to contraceptive failure or no use of contraception. The Chinese Family Planning (FP) program focuses mainly on birth control among married couples and the services are provided by an independent FP system. Young and unmarried women including rural-to-urban migrant women are less likely to access professional FP services. Abortion is a commonly used way to end unwanted pregnancy, however, post-abortion family planning services are often lacking in hospital settings.
The INPAC project consortium proposes to integrate post-abortion family planning services into existing abortion services in hospital settings in China and to evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions in terms of reduction of unwanted pregnancies and repeat abortions. Based on the project findings, policy recommendations on health system organization aiming to improve equitable access to reproductive healthcare and FP service will be developed.
Context-specific interventions will be developed based on a situation analysis of the effects of the current FP policy and a feasibility assessment of the integration approach. The proposed interventions will be implemented in 30 divisions of mainland China and evaluated with regard to its effectiveness. The project will contribute to standardize the post-abortion family planning services and decrease the long-term costs related to abortion in China. The results of this research will also be of interest to other countries with high abortion rates.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
FP7-HEALTH-2011-single-stage
See other projects for this call
Coordinator
9000 Gent
Belgium