Preventing unsafe abortion: Achievements and challenges of a global FIGO initiative.

FIGO established a Working Group on the Prevention of Unsafe Abortion in 2007 and a parallel program or "Initiative" with the same name. The initiative involved 46 FIGO member societies from seven regions: South-Southeast Asia, Eastern-Central Europe and Central Asia, North Africa and Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern-Central-Southern Africa, Western-Central Africa, Central America and Caribbean, and South America. Each society working in collaboration with the corresponding Ministry of Health and other agencies conducted a situational analysis and prepared a plan of action based on the findings. Such plans of action are continuously monitored by annual evaluation of the progress in the implementation at regional workshops. A substantial progress has been achieved in providing legal and safe abortion services, replacing curettage for manual vacuum aspiration or misoprostol and introducing and expanding postabortion contraception with emphasis on long-acting methods, such as IUDs and contraceptive implants.