From political priority to service delivery: complexities to real-life priority of abortion services in Ethiopia.
Health Policy Plan
; 39(8): 831-840, 2024 Sep 10.
Article
de En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38978118
ABSTRACT
Improving access to abortion services has been coined a high priority by the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health. Nevertheless, many women are still struggling to access abortion services. The dedicated commitment to expanding abortion services by central authorities and the difficulties in further improving access to the services make for an interesting case to explore the real-life complexities of health priority setting. This article thus explores what it means to make abortion services a priority by drawing on in-depth interviews with healthcare bureaucrats and key stakeholders working closely with abortion service policy and implementation. Data were collected from February to April 2022. Health bureaucrats from 9 of the 12 regional states in Ethiopia and the Federal Ministry of Health were interviewed in addition to key stakeholders from professional organizations and NGOs. The study found that political will and priority to abortion services by central authorities were not necessarily enough to ensure access to the service across the health sector. At the regional and local level, there were considerable challenges with a lack of funding, equipment and human resources for implementing and expanding access to abortion services. The inadequacy of indicators and reporting systems hindered accountability and made it difficult to give priority to abortion services among the series of health programmes and priorities that local health authorities had to implement. The situation was further challenged by the contested nature of the abortion issue itself, both in the general population, but also amongst health bureaucrats and hospital leaders. This study casts a light on the complex and entangled processes of turning national-level priorities into on-the-ground practice and highlights the real-life challenges of setting and implementing health priorities.
Mots clés
Texte intégral:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Base de données:
MEDLINE
Sujet principal:
Politique
/
Avortement provoqué
/
Priorités en santé
/
Accessibilité des services de santé
Limites:
Female
/
Humans
/
Pregnancy
Pays/Région comme sujet:
Africa
Langue:
En
Journal:
Health Policy Plan
Sujet du journal:
PESQUISA EM SERVICOS DE SAUDE
/
SAUDE PUBLICA
Année:
2024
Type de document:
Article
Pays d'affiliation:
Norvège
Pays de publication:
Royaume-Uni