Profile of abortion seekers and their views on financial cost of induced abortions: implications for preventing unsafe abortions among young people in Accra, Ghana.

Objectives

Despite liberal abortion laws, unsafe abortions remain a public health challenge in Ghana. This study examines the implications of the financial cost of abortion in assessing safer services for young people in Ghana.

Study design

This is a retrospective cross-sectional mixed-method study.

Methods

Questionnaires (401) and in-depth interviews (21) were used to collect data from women seeking elective abortions (320) and those treated for postabortion complications (81) in 6 health facilities comprising non-governmental organizations (2) and public (2) and private (2) hospitals from January to December 2018 in Accra.

Results

Results suggest high hospital abortion charges as major barriers to accessing safe abortion care in Accra as the surgical procedures cost three times more than that of other methods because of cost of anesthetics and antibiotics.

Conclusions

Standardizing costs of abortion services across hospitals and integrating these costs into the National Health Insurance Scheme is highly recommended.