Abortion care guideline
The objective of this guideline is to present the complete set of all WHO recommendations and best practice statements relating to abortion. While legal, regulatory, policy and service-delivery contexts may vary from country to country, the recommendations and best practices described in this document aim to enable evidence-based decision-making with respect to quality abortion care.
This guideline updates and replaces the recommendations in the following previous WHO guidelines:
- Safe abortion: technical and policy guidance for health systems, second edition (2012)
- Health worker roles in providing safe abortion care and post-abortion contraception (previously known as the “task sharing” guidance) (2015)
- Medical management of abortion (2018)
Other language versions
Related links
- Abortion care guideline (digital version)
- Abortion care guideline (resource kit)
- Abortion care guideline: executive summary (incl. Arabic, Chinese, French, Japanese, Russian, Spanish)
- Medical management of abortion (summary chart of recommendations)
- Medical management of abortion (Pocket guide of recommendations)
- Towards a supportive law and policy environment for quality abortion care: evidence brief
- Clinical practice handbook for quality abortion care
Web annexes
- A. Key international human rights standards on abortion
- B. Technical meetings during guideline development
Supplementary materials
- Evidence-to-Decision frameworks for the law and policy recommendations
- Evidence-to-Decision frameworks for the clinical service recommendations
- Evidence-to-Decision frameworks for the service delivery recommendations and best practice statements
