Expanding access to safe abortion in Bihar, India

In Bihar, one of the poorest states in India, an innovative public-private partnership has been launched that will reduce maternal mortality by increasing access to safe abortion care. Ipas India joined government leaders at a ceremony at Patna at the end of April launching Yukti Yojana, a program to accredit private facilities to provide safe abortion care in collaboration with the public health system.

About 500,000 abortions occur in Bihar every year, but with only a limited number of public-sector facilities offering comprehensive abortion care, poor and rural women often resort to unsafe abortions performed by untrained providers. Deaths as a result of unsafe abortion contribute significantly to the state’s high maternal mortality rate.

As part of an effort to reduce these deaths, the government of Bihar together with Ipas and the State Health Society Bihar, developed an innovative program to make safe abortion care available through private health care providers. “Yukti” means “solution” in Hindi, and “yojana” means “program.”

The arrangement will complement the services available in public facilities, making abortion care more accessible to women across the state. The state hopes that by removing cost and geographic barriers to care, they will be able to significantly reduce maternal mortality and improve reproductive rights of women in the state.

Bihar Minister of Health A.K Choubey and Minister of Social Development Parveen Amanullah together opened the initiative by awarding accreditations to three health care centers. The participation by the two departments underscored that women seek unsafe abortions not only because they lack access to safe medical care, but also face a range of social and cultural barriers to care.

At the ceremony, Mrs. Amanullah also inaugurated a toll-free help line to provide information about safe abortion care to the community and direct women seeking services to the nearest accredited site.

Ipas will provide technical assistance to the state government and private facilities implementing the program. Vinoj Manning, director of Ipas India, said that "Ipas is delighted to support the government to implement and monitor the Yukti Yogna program. I believe this innovation has power to significantly change abortion care seeking behavior in Bihar and could be a model for replication in other states."

Source: Ipas