Knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of health providers towards safe abortion provision in Addis Ababa health centers

Unsafe abortion remains a reality for many Ethiopian women and will remain so until safe abortion is more accessible across the country. The house of representatives of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) revised the abortion law and Ministry of Health (MoH) of FDRE developed a revised technical and procedural guideline for safe abortion services in Ethiopia; emphasizing the need to increase knowledge and practice of health service providers on safe abortion care (SAC) and access to safe terminations of pregnancy at high standard and quality.

A facility based descriptive cross-sectional study using structured self-administered questionnaire was conducted between July and August 2015. A total of 405 mid-level providers (MLPs) including midwives, clinical nurses and health officers were included from 30 randomly selected health centers in Addis Ababa. SPSS version-21 was used for data entry, cleaning and analysis. The results were presented using frequency tables, percentages, means, Odds ratio and 95% confidence limits.

Among 405 MLPs 71.9% knew the definition of abortion in the in Ethiopia context, 81.5% participants were familiar with the revised abortion law. 53.1% of respondents had adequate knowledge on safe abortion care and working for 3–5 years (AOR 3.1 with CI 1.6, 5.7) and midwives (AOR = 2.9 with CI 1.8, 4.7) had better knowledge on abortion. Only eighty-three (20.5%) of MLPs were trained on safe abortion and among them sixty-eight (81.9%) were practising/used to practice safe abortion services. Half of respondents gave post abortion family planning methods. 54.1% respondents had positive attitude towards safe abortion. MLPs’ who had adequate knowledge on safe abortion care (AOR 2.02, 95% CI 1.3–3.1) and male providers (AOR 1.6, 95% CI 1.04–2.4) were more likely to have positive attitude towards safe abortion. MLPs who had adequate knowledge on abortion 3.4 times (CI of 95% =1.1–10.6) were more likely to practise safe abortion care.

The majority claimed to know the current abortion law; however, many failed to understand the specific provisions of the law. Type of profession and years of experiences were important in explaining providers’ knowledge related to abortion. Being male and having the knowledge significantly influenced providers’ attitude toward safe abortion. Knowledge related to abortion also influenced the practice of SAC. Efforts to improve mid-level as well as other health care providers’ knowledge on abortion are necessary, for example, through pre−/on-service training.