Strategies to reduce healthcare costs of providing abortion and post-abortion care while simultaneously improving the quality of care are well documented but infrequently applied. We created ‘Savings’, a spreadsheet-based tool that allows policymakers and other stakeholders to estimate and compare the feasibility and sustainability of different abortion and post-abortion care strategies. By applying cost data, we showed the per-case costs under four policy and service delivery scenarios.
The mean per-case cost of abortion care was within the setting that placed heavy restrictions on elective abortion and used a conventional approach to service delivery; within the restrictive legal environment that used recommended interventions for treating complications; within the standard setting that allowed elective abortion and relied on a conventional approach to service delivery; and within the liberal legal environment that used recommended interventions.
They are using recommended technical interventions to substantially reduced costs regardless of the legal setting. The most significant reduction in costs occurred from using recommended interventions within a liberal legal environment rather than using conventional interventions within a restricted location. These findings should support policy and practice efforts to reform abortion laws and to offer accessible, safe abortion services.
Reference: https://srh.bmj.com/content/33/4/250
