Summary Recent technological advances and renewed interest in older technologies have made it more feasible and more desirable for health providers to perform abortions for women who are less than 6-7 weeks pregnant.
Early abortion offers numerous advantages to women and providers.
Researchers' objectives included identifying factors that have hindered or facilitated the integration of early abortion services into existing service provision, in order to develop recommendations for encouraging the availability of early surgical and medical services. Trained interviewers conducted telephone interviews of staff at 113 service delivery sites. In general, sites reported that it was somewhat easier to begin offering early surgical abortion than early medical abortion. Given the opportunity to reconsider their decision to offer early abortion services, respondents at nearly all sites recommended offering these services again. However, survey results also suggested that sites currently providing early abortion could provide services more routinely and better promote their availability.