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Objective: To determine to what extent women adopted highly effective contraceptive methods after a legal abortion., Methods: The data available during a period before and another period after liberalization of the abortion law were reviewed. The data gathering was incomplete and reliable only during certain periods, which were used in the study., Results: There was an increase in the proportion of women who returned for contraception and in the proportion who used any method and long-acting methods; however, no contraception was administered immediately after abortion and only 16% of all women treated started to use a long-acting method during the period after the law was liberalized., Conclusion: The proposed objective was not being achieved, the recommended guidelines were not being followed, and data gathering was incomplete. Good intentions are not enough and it is always necessary to evaluate the performance of a program. The results indicate that immediate reforms are necessary in postabortion contraception services., (Copyright © 2016 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To describe the initial stages of the implementation of a risk-reduction model designed by Iniciativas Sanitarias to shield women from unsafe abortion in a traditional community on the Uruguay-Brazil border., Methods: This mixed-design study was conducted first between 22 and 26 March 2010, and then between 2 and 7 May 2011, in Rivera, Uruguay, to gather information from women seen at health centers, healthcare providers, and local policy makers before the project started and midway through the project., Results: At baseline most women and providers considered abortion justifiable only on narrow grounds, yet favored the implementation of a risk-reduction model that would include preabortion as well as postabortion counseling, the former providing information on different abortion methods and their risks. By the midterm assessment, the counseling service had assisted 87 women with unwanted pregnancies. Of the 52 who came for a postabortion visit, 50 had self-administered misoprostol, with no complications. Women were highly satisfied with the counseling. At baseline, misoprostol seemed to be available from both pharmacists and informal sellers. At midterm, it was still available from informal vendors but pharmacists said they did not provide misoprostol. The risk-reduction initiative heightened public attention to the abortion issue but the controversy it generated did not seriously impede its implementation., Conclusion: It is feasible to implement the proposed risk-reduction model in a traditional community such as Rivera, not only in Uruguay but in any country irrespective of its abortion laws., (Copyright © 2012 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)