Search

Post-abortion family planning (PAFP) has been proposed as a key strategy to decrease unintended pregnancy and repeat induced abortions. However, the accessibility and quality of PAFP services remain a challenge in many countries including China where more than 10 million unintended pregnancies occur each year. Most of these unwanted pregnancies end in repeated induced abortions. This paper aims to explore service providers’ perceptions of the current situation regarding family planning and abortion service needs, provision, utilization, and the feasibility and acceptability of high quality PAFP in the future. Qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, were used with family planning policy makers, health managers, and service providers. Three provinces—Zhe-jiang, Hubei and Yunnan—were purposively selected, representing high, medium and relatively undeveloped areas of China. A total of fifty-three in-depth interviews and ten focus-group discussions were conducted and analysed thematically. Increased numbers of abortions among young, unmarried women were perceived as a major reason for high numbers of abortions. Participants attributed this to increasing socio-cultural acceptability of premarital sex, and simultaneously, lack of understanding or awareness of contraception among young people. The majority of service stakeholders acknowledged that free family planning services were neither targeted at, nor accessible to unmarried people. The extent of PAFP provision is variable and limited. However, service providers expressed willingness and enthusiasm towards providing PAFP services in the future. Three main considerations were expressed regarding the feasibility of developing and implementing PAFP services: policy support, human resources, and financial resources. The study indicated that key service stakeholders show demand for and perceive considerable opportunities to develop PAFP in China. However, changes are needed to enable the systematic development of high quality PAFP, including actively targeting young and unmarried people in service provision, obtaining policy support and increasing the investment of human and financial resources., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

This paperexploredhow Chinese civil society organizations (CSOs) had been involved in an adolescent reproductive health policy process and its implications for other developing countries with similar political and social contexts. The case study was the 6th cycle of the Country Program on adolescent reproductive health (Jan. 2006-Dec. 2010). It was a multi-phased, retrospective qualitative study in Guangxi autonomous region. Six categories of policy actors including politician, CSO, policy-maker, health manager, development partner and researcher were interviewed, 34 documents were reviewed and 1 participatory stakeholder workshop was held between Jun. 2007 and Apr. 2008. We focused on different CSOs that had been involved in different stages of the policy process, what strategies they had used to interact with the policy process and how they influenced the content and implementation of the policy. Our results showed that new forms of CSOs in China were emerging, with different mechanisms being used to express their voice and influence the policy process. The involvements of CSOs in the adolescent reproductive health policy process also showed how new opportunities were arising in a rapidly changing Chinese political context, but various factors might affect their involvement in policy process. Critical amongst these were the characteristics of the CSOs, the wider political context of the country and the nature of the policy itself.