by Laura E Jacobson, Ruvani Jayaweera, Katy Footman, Julia M Goodman, Caitlin Gerdts, Blair G Darney
Contraception Volume 141, January 2025, Article Number 110700
[Here is a nice snippet from the Introduction to this article, summarising the reasons for the study]
Despite evidence of the safety of self-managed abortion, seeking any kind of post-abortion care at a health facility is used as an indirect measure of abortion complications, and is often framed as a measure of abortion safety at the country or regional level. Individuals may, however, seek care following self- or facility-managed medication abortion for a variety of reasons: assurance that symptoms are normal, pain management, and to confirm pregnancy termination. Individuals may also routinely be counselled by providers or support networks to seek post-abortion follow-up care, even when it is clinically unnecessary. Whether an individual did or did not seek follow-up care alone is, therefore, not only a flawed indicator of abortion complications, but also an unreliable indicator of whether an individual’s abortion follow-up care needs were met.