The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #62365

Merrill Wolf, MA, Public Affairs and Media, Ipas, 300 Market Street, Suite 200, Chapel Hill, NC 27516, 919 960 5612, wolfm@ipas.org, Charlotte E. Hord Smith, BA, Director, Policy Division, Ipas, 300 Market Street, Suite 200, Chapel Hill, NC 27516, and Jenny Higgins, MA, Institute for Women's Studies & Department of International Health, Emory University, S-301 Callaway Center, Atlanta, GA 30322.

The World Health Organization (WHO) expects to release a global policy document in early 2003 on safe abortion. This document will provide guidance to governments and health ministries about how to operationalize recommendations from the ICPD+5 review that indicate "in circumstances where abortion is not against the law, health systems should train and equip health-service providers and should take other measures to ensure that such abortion is safe and accessible" (UN 1999, paragraph 63iii). After assisting the WHO with the writing of the new guidance, policy researchers at Ipas hoped to devise a series of toolkits that would facilitate the implementation of this groundbreaking document. During this presentation, we will first identify the major highlights of the new WHO guidelines. Second, we discuss the challenges that many countries are likely to face in implementing them, particularly due to do disconnects between abortion policy and abortion reality. Third, we provide background on our process to devise a series of useful policy toolkits that first takes into account local context and practices. India, Nigeria, and South Africa will be highlighted as examples. Finally, after describing these toolkits, we more broadly discuss potential strategies for applying global policy guidance to settings with varying laws, services, and practices. While this presentation is specific to guidance from the WHO, it can be useful for situations where health systems are expected to apply policy guidance in areas they have not previously addressed.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to:
• List five highlights of the new WHO guide, "Safe abortion: Technical and policy guidance for health systems."
• Articulate the reasons why many UN member countries will have difficulty meeting these guidelines.
• Gain familiarity with the toolkits Ipas has designed to ease implementation of WHO guidelines.
• Identify strategies that help bridge the gap between global health policies with local health practices.

Keywords: Abortion, Policy/Policy Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: World Health Organization Ipas
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.