Abortion :: Trained midwives can provide abortions safely – Lancet

Trained midwives and physician assistants can provide first trimester abortions as safely as doctors in developing countries, a new study found, published in Wednesday’s issue of The Lancet.

Ina Warriner of the World Health Organization and her colleagues compared rates of complications from abortions performed either by doctors or by trained and government-accredited mid-level providers such as midwives.

Using the trained alternatives to doctors “provides women with more accessible and less costly means of safely terminating unintended pregnancies, freeing doctors for more complicated procedures,” the researchers concluded.

A woman dies every eight minutes from an unsafe abortion, according to a commentary that accompanies the study.


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