2018 Ghana Health Facility Survey Abortion Knowledge

These data come from a 2018 study conducted in Ghana that uses Abortion Incidence Complications Methodology (AICM) to explore abortion incidence nationally and within each of Ghana’s three ecological zones. As one of the two surveys used for this study, the nationally representative Health Facilities Survey (HFS) looks at health facilities that can potentially provide abortion and/or post-abortion care, except for community-based health planning and services facilities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). HFS interviews were conducted with a senior member of the health facility staff who was knowledgeable about their facility’s provision of abortion and/or post-abortion abortion care, including obstetrician-gynecologists, general practitioners, physician’s assistants, nurses, midwives, and administrators. <br><br>Information collected from the HFS includes facility type, location, number of beds available, services offered (labor and delivery, PAC, and contraceptive counseling), equipment and methods available (including methods used to provide PAC and family planning methods), number of patients receiving abortions or post-abortion care, and respondent training, background, knowledge, and perceptions, among others. The general information module included questions on knowledge of abortion legality, perceptions surrounding unintended pregnancy, and recommendations for reducing unsafe abortion. <br><br>The dataset available in this public release contains a subset of the variables from the nationally representative HFS dataset. To better correspond with the paper that explores knowledge of abortion legality among providers[2], we retained relevant variables from the dataset including respondent training and background, respondent knowledge of abortion legality in Ghana, respondent perceptions surrounding unintended pregnancy, respondent recommendations for reducing unsafe abortion, and facility characteristics and information