Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Can community health workers p lay a greater role in increasing access to medical abortion 
services? a qualitative study  
 
Version: 0 Date: 14 Sep 2016  
 
Reviewer: Mags Beksinska  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
Thank you for well written and very interesting paper.  
Just a few queries and comments.  
In the Abstract it states " 24 women seeking early medical abortions or presen ting for follow -
up.... however in the limitations it says "only contacted women who successfully reached a safe 
abortion facility. this is not the same thing - soa  woman may seek but not get to a safe place to 
provide the service - can you clarify.  
The st udy talks of 24 women but on page 6 it talks of 12 plus 13 who participated in the 
eligibility assessment so does this assume one failed eligibility? later it talks of 23 women on 
page 16 and 17 doe snot say what happened to no 24? please clarify.  
In the methods it talks of 3 clinics but on page 17 it says clinic and although i assume it is talking 
about all three - there is no info on how many were interviewed at each of the 3 maybe could be 
added to the table. in the discussion would it be worth making s ome assumption of the numbers 
of CHWs active in the area  might be worth discussing that women reaching a facility may be 
more empowered/financially stable and may be a different profile to those using CHWs services. 
maybe  the CHWs motivate women but they  still dont get to the services - perhaps they should 
follow up to se eif they did?  
May be worth considering putting the profile of the women and the table right before the text on 
the results as the CHW data comes first and so the data on the women is spl it across two sections 
of the results - just a suggestion.  
Might be useful to give more description on differences between scheduled tribe and other/caste. 
people may not understand what all thee mean.  
Were women reimbursed for the interview should be men tioned.  
I see it was purposive sampling but I assumed you may have over sampled to get more women 
that had had some sort of interaction with the ASHA? was that the case? that they were the only 
three.  
When was this research conducted - year?  
Just a point of interest - they were all married but three reported no living children - in that context 
why were they seeking abortion? not ready to have a family yet?  
In your table in the row Marital status as all 24 are married there is no need to have t he other two 
categories with none.  
Are the methods appropriate and well described?  
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Does the work include the necessary controls?  
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supporte d by the data shown?  
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Are you able to assess any statistics in the manuscript or would you recommend an  
additional statistical review?  
If an additional statistical review is recommended, please spe cify what aspects require further  
assessment in your comments to the editors.  
 
Not relevant to this manuscript  
 
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:  
 
Acceptable  
 
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