Comprehensive Abortion Care (CAC)

Our research focuses on improving access to high-quality abortion care in low-resource, fragile, and humanitarian settings, with a particular emphasis on women’s reproductive autonomy, quality of care, and the role of midwives.

Through long-term partnerships in Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), we conduct implementation research to understand barriers and facilitators to abortion care, strengthen person-centred service delivery, reduce abortion-related stigma, and improve access to post-abortion family planning. Our work has demonstrated substantial unmet needs for abortion and post-abortion care, including delayed access to services, financial barriers, stigma, and inequities in care experiences. We have also shown the critical role of midwives in delivering safe, respectful, and evidence-based abortion care across the continuum of services.

Building on this work, we are developing and evaluating innovative models of self-managed medication abortion as an entry point for strengthening reproductive autonomy in fragile health systems. Increasing evidence demonstrates that self-managed medication abortion with quality medications and appropriate information and support is safe, effective, and acceptable during early pregnancy. However, women and girls in humanitarian and fragile settings continue to face significant barriers to accessing facility-based services, including shortages of trained providers, disrupted health systems, long travel distances, and social stigma.

In collaboration with academic institutions, ministries of health, civil society organizations, and implementation partners, we aim to develop, implement, and evaluate person-centred models for self-managed medication abortion that improve access to safe care while strengthening continuity of care, referral systems, management of complications, and post-abortion family planning. Through co-creation with women, communities, healthcare providers, and policymakers, we generate evidence to inform national policies and humanitarian response frameworks.

Our research combines reproductive autonomy, person-centred care, health systems strengthening, and implementation science to identify scalable approaches that improve access to abortion care, reduce stigma, and support women’s rights to make informed decisions about their reproductive lives. Ultimately, our goal is to contribute to more equitable, accessible, and high-quality abortion care for women and girls in diverse and challenging contexts.