Post abortion family planning (PAFP) is the initiation and use of family planning methods at the time of management of an abortion or before fertility returns after the abortion [1]. Using PAFP reduces unintended pregnancies and repititions of abortions. It also reducesthe risks of adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes for pregnancies following induced abortion [2]. Unintended pregnancies were the vast majority cause of abortions[3].
Globally, estimated 210 million pregnancies occur each year and 44% of these were unintentional [4–6]. Of the unintentional ones, 56% was end in an abortion [3]. The unintended pregnancy mainly affect the adolescent age (15–19 years) which account about 10 million unintended pregnancies. About 5.6 million of this unintended pregnancy ended by abortions [5, 7]. In addtiotion, from the unintended pregnancies occured between 2015 and 2019 years, 61% of them ended in abortion [8]. Out of worldwide induced, abortion half of them were unsafe abortion, contributing about 13% of all maternal deaths [7, 9, 10]. Almost all 98% of unsafe abortion had taken place in developing countries [6].
The estimated unintended pregnancy rate in developing regions is 65 per 1,000 women aged 15–44, as of 2010–2014. Among the highest rate regions, Africa is the one which consists of 89 per 1,000 abortion [3]. In many African countries, a high proportion (15–30%) of hospital gynecological admissions is due to complications of unsafe abortion [11]. On the other hand hand, unsafe-abortion account 40 per 100,000 live births maternal mortality ratio in developing regions, but the Eastern Africa region is accounted more than twice of this which was 100 per 100,000 [5].
Integrating post-abortion family planning services could decrease unintended pregnancy and repeat abortions[12]. More than one-fourth of mortality Can be prevented when women use contraceptive consistently and correctly [5]. In addition, provision of post-abortion contraceptive services helps as one safeguarding of the reproductive health of the women. However, according to one report, about 50 − 20% women did not uptake post abortion family planning. According to a study done in 10 countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, 23% of women left the health facility without a contraceptive method after receiving abortion care [4, 13]. This leads women to have high risk of unintended pregnancy, which ends up with unsafe and repeated abortions [14, 15].
In Ethiopia, about 42% of all pregnancies were unintended and 620,300 were ended by abortions. The annual abortion rate was 28 per 1,000. In the other world, the adolescents age were among the highest-risk group; of their pregnancy, 44% were unintended and 46% of this ended up in abortion [13, 16]. The abortion rate is highest in urban area; for instance, in Addis Ababa 92 per 1,000 [3, 4]. The studies done in Ethiopia showed that among women who got abortion service. It is one-fifth did not receive post-abortion contraceptive [17] and the incidence of repeated abortion was 30% [4]. To avert this, Ethiopia had set a comprehensive strategy of abortion care which improves access of information and methods for uptake of post-abortion family planning. It authorizes health care providers to offer safe abortion and post abortion care mainly post abortion family planning services for women who want it [18]. Despite these efforts, still, service data revealed a low rate of uptake of contraception after abortion care in most facilities [6]. The provision of post-abortion contraceptive services helps as one of safeguarding of the reproductive health of the women. Further, it can improve contraceptive acceptance and help break the cycle of repeated unwanted pregnancies.Therefore, this study assessed post-abortion contraceptive utilization and associated factors among women who were seeking abortion service at Asella town health facilities.