Abstract:
Background: Despite access to the expansion of safe abortion, problems relating to
unsafe abortion have persisted because of healthcare providers’ negative attitudes and
poor service quality. Limited studies have been done on the attitudes of healthcare
providers toward safe abortion care in Ethiopia. The studies that have been done so far
have not included rural settings that this study fills in the gaps.
Objective: To assess attitudes toward safe abortion care provision and associated factors
among healthcare providers of Public health facilities in the West Shewa zone, 2022.
Methods: A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted from January 1 to
February 30, 2022. Thirty public health facilities were selected randomly from which
study participants were selected by simple random sampling technique. A pretested, self administered, and structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were entered
into Epi info version 7 and exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Variables with p value of 0.05 in multivariable logistic regression were used to fit the model. AOR with
95% CI were computed to determine the strength of association at P-value < 0.05.
Result: This study showed that 55.8% (95% CI: 51–60.6) of healthcare providers in the
West Shewa Zone had a favorable attitude towards safe abortion care. Healthcare
providers who had ever provided safe abortion care (AOR: 1.72: 95% CI: 1.05-2.82),
who were working in health centers (AOR: 2.13: 95% CI: 1.17–3.90), who had ever got
training on safe abortion care (AOR: 1.99: 95% CI: 1.18-3.34), and those who were
interested in current legality of safe abortion care provision (AOR: 4.57: 95% CI: 2.93-
7.12) were more likely to have a favorable attitude towards safe abortion provision.
Conclusions and Recommendations: A favorable attitude towards safe abortion care
among healthcare providers in West Shewa Zone was found to be low. Giving training
for healthcare providers on safe abortion care and on their ethical responsibilities and
equal considerations for both hospitals and health centers in supporting and supervising
safe abortion service provisions are recommended as interventions that may be effective
in influencing healthcare providers’ attitudes regarding safe abortion care.
