Number/percent of service delivery points providing postabortion care services by type and geographic distribution

Number/percent of service delivery points providing postabortion care services by type and geographic distribution

Number/percent of service delivery points providing postabortion care services by type and geographic distribution

The total number and percent of service delivery points (SDPs) providing postabortion care (PAC) services by type of facility (e.g., health center, district hospital, private physician) and geographic location.

Service delivery points should include those in both the public and private health care sectors.

This indicator is calculated as:

# of SDPs of a particular type that deliver PAC services in a given area x 100
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Total # of SDPs of that type in the area

Postabortion care consists of:

  • Emergency treatment for complications from spontaneous or induced abortions
  • Family planning counseling and services, sexually transmitted infection evaluation and treatment, and HIV counseling and/or referral for testing

A third component, which does not need to be included in order to be counted for this indicator, is:

  • Community empowerment through community awareness and mobilization (USAID, 2011)

Data Requirement(s):

Total number, type, and geographic location of facili­ties providing postabortion care services; total number of service delivery facilities by type and location

National program records; private and NGO records; provider interviews; and observation of services

The purpose of this indicator is to measure the degree to which PAC services are available within a given country.

Ideally, information collected for this indicator can serve to monitor other key indicators, such as the percentage of facilities offering PAC services in a given region or at a given level of care (e.g., health center, district hos­pitals, and tertiary hospitals). Another alternative in­dicator is the number, type, and geographic distribution of SDPs that have commodities, equipment, and trans­port for postabortion care.

If population figures are available, information collected for this indicator may help determine if the number and type of facilities providing services are sufficient for the population served. Indicators developed by UNICEF, WHO, and UNFPA for monitoring access to emergency obstetric care can provide guidance.

All countries should be able to moni­tor the availability of PAC services for treatment of abor­tion complications. In countries where abortion is se­verely restricted, evaluators may have difficulty obtain­ing accurate information on all the facilities providing PAC services. Even in countries where abortion laws may be less restrictive, providers (espe­cially private providers) may be less open to admitting that they provide such services because of the stigma attached to abortion and a desire to protect the privacy of their patients.

access, postabortion care, safe motherhood (SM)

USAID Core Components of the Postabortion Care Model. USAID, 2011. Accessed in June, 2011.  Available at: http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADU081.pdf

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