Profile of abortion seekers and their views on financial cost of induced abortions: implications for preventing unsafe abortions among young people in Accra, Ghana

Objectives: Despite liberal abortion laws, unsafe abortions remain a public health challenge in Ghana. This study examines implications of financial cost of abortion in assessing safer services for young people in Ghana. Study design: This is a retrospective cross-sectional mixed-method study. Methods: Questionnaires (401) and in-depth interviews (21) were used to collect data from women seeking elective abortions (320) and those treated for postabortion complications (81) in 6 health facilities comprising non-governmental organizations (2) and public (2) and private (2) hospitals from January to December 2018 in Accra. Results: Results suggest high hospital abortion charges as major barriers to accessing safe abortion care in Accra as the surgical procedures cost three times more than that of other methods because of cost of anesthetics and antibiotics. Conclusions: Standardizing costs of abortion services across hospitals and integrating these costs into the National Health Insurance Scheme is highly recommended. (C) 2020 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.