Nepal Medical Abortion

In Nepal, Ipas is working to expand medical abortion services as a promising strategy for providing safe abortion in low resource settings. Components of the successful provision of medical abortion (MA) include correct identification of gestational age, screening for eligibility, and assessment of successful MA. To provide a strategy for safely expanding MA availability to the lowest level of services, Ipas has developed a toolkit with tools for assessing medical abortion eligibility, as well as tools for assessing medical abortion success two weeks after the initial dose of mifepristone. This toolkit has been designed for use by female community health volunteers (FCHVs) and women themselves. The purpose of the proposed study is to examine the reliability of this toolkit in correctly assessing MA eligibility and success, when compared with comprehensive abortion care (CAC) providers offering standard care. Depending on the findings of this study, crucial evidence may be gained for safely introducing access to medical abortion at the community level and beyond the healthcare system either through FCHVs and/or independently by women.<br>