Expanding Provider Base for Safe Abortion in India: Policy Gaps

This background note examines opportunities to expand access to safe abortion care in India by enabling a wider range of trained healthcare providers to deliver specific abortion-related services and post-abortion care.

Drawing on WHO recommendations and the Indian policy context, the document maps the roles of different provider cadres, including MBBS doctors, AYUSH providers, nurses, ANMs, pharmacists, and ASHAs. It identifies key legal, policy, and implementation gaps that limit task-sharing, even where global evidence supports the safe involvement of trained non-specialist providers.

The note also outlines recommendations to strengthen access to comprehensive abortion care, particularly in underserved areas, and discusses the potential for self-management of medical abortion in the first trimester.

Developed by Ipas Development Foundation in collaboration with WHO’s HRP programme, this document was revised following an expert group meeting held in February 2017.