Summary

According to 2015–2019 data, there are 121 million unintended pregnancies each year globally. One hundred eleven million of these occur in low- and middle-income countries. Of all unintended pregnancies, 61%, or about 73 million pregnancies, end in abortions annually, at the rate of 39 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age. About half the abortions, or 35 million of them, are unsafe, contributing to the 299,000 maternal deaths each year. These, in turn, have implications for the realization of almost every one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, specifically ensuring good health and well-being, achieving gender equity, and ending poverty.

Abortions occur in every country irrespective of income level or the legal status of abortion. From 1990 to 2019, there has been a greater increase in the proportion of pregnancies ending in abortions in countries where abortion is restricted compared with countries where abortion is broadly legal.

A growing proportion of these abortions are medication abortions, incorporating the use of mifepristone or misoprostol or both. The availability of this becomes even more important in areas where policy or infrastructure or both are more restrictive for providing safe, legal abortions. Providing quality, women-centered, comprehensive abortion care that is equitably accessible hence becomes imperative to addressing a woman’s ability to access appropriate medical care for her reproductive needs. Making this amenable to a digital platform overcomes even more barriers, be they socioeconomic or policy-driven. Fortunately, recent research and evidence support this, hence broadening the availability of safe abortion care into areas and demographics that remained precluded from the availability of comprehensive reproductive health care. Targeted progress and strengthened commitments are needed to further this penetration and provide access to compassionate, safe, and quality care for abortion and family planning.