246 Abor tion
How to tell if an abortion will be safe
It is not always easy to tell if an abortion will be safe. Try to go to the place where
the abortion will be done, or ask someone who has been there these questions:
• Have you heard of women getting sick or dying from having an abortion here?
If so, go somewhere else.
• Who will do the abortion and how were they trained? Doctors, nurses,
health workers, and traditional birth attendants can all do abortions. However,
abortions done by someone who is not trained in safe abortion methods and
how to prevent infection can be very dangerous.
This room looks safe.
• Is the room where the abortion will be done clean and neat? If it is dirty and
messy, probably the abortion will be also.
• Is there a place for washing hands? A health worker who has no place to wash
his or her hands cannot do a clean, safe abortion.
• Do the instruments look like the ones in this chapter on page 244, or do they
look like something found or made at home? Instruments made at home can
cause injury and infection.
• How are the instruments cleaned and made free of germs? Instruments
should be soaked in strong disinfectant or boiled in water to kill germs that
cause infection.
Where Women Have No Doctor 2012