Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116906

Gwyn Hainsworth, MEd and Youth Friendly PAC Working Group. Pathfinder International, 9 Galen Street, Suite 217, Watertown, MA 02472, 617-924-7200, ghainsworth@pathfind.org

Background: Adolescent women are vulnerable to unwanted pregnancy due to their psycho-social development, lack of access to reproductive health (RH) information and services, and cultural beliefs that prevent open discussion on RH issues. UNFPA reports that 10-14% of young unmarried women worldwide have unwanted pregnancies. According to WHO, as many as 4.4 million adolescents resort to abortion each year, the majority of these abortions are illegal and unsafe. Due to limited financial resources and the fear of exposure, many young women seek out unqualified providers or attempt unsafe procedures in unhygienic conditions. Young women also delay seeking care for complications of unsafe abortion due to unawareness of PAC services, lack of money, and provider's attitudes.

Process: Recognizing the need to address this problem, the PAC Consortium formed the Working Group on Youth-Friendly PAC in 2002. Within the Working Group, international NGOs shared experiences and resources on PAC and adolescents. Although many of the organizations were implementing youth-friendly services or PAC programs, few of them were integrating the two to offer youth-friendly PAC. The Working Group then decided to develop technical guidance on youth-friendly PAC with the hopes that it would guide program managers and technical staff on how to better meet the needs of young people.

Conclusion: Through a participatory process involving several organizations, this technical guidance was developed within the Essential Elements of PAC framework. This presentation will provide an overview of the technical guidance and recommend how it can be applied within existing PAC or youth programs.

Learning Objectives: By the end of the presentation, participants will be able to

• Explain why adolescents are disproportionately affected by unsafe abortion
• Describe how the Essential Elements of PAC model can be adapted to meet the needs of youth
• Apply technical guidance on youth-friendly postabortion (PAC) services to PAC programs in various settings.

Keywords: Adolescents, International, Post-Abortion Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.