A central issue concerning the safety of its population is the access to health care including abortion services.
Historically, access to abortion in Sub-Saharan Africa has created controversy amongst some members of the public and its healthcare professionals, due to existing religious practices and traditional beliefs.
[1] In 1994, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), organised by the United Nations, remarked on the need to reduce unsafe abortions in order to tackle these maternal mortality rates.
This Policy came to existence during a transition from the Imperial and Military regimes in Ethiopia, during which population and the reproductive health movement had largely been neglected as a national concern.
[4] The policy's crucial goals were to reduce the fertility rate from 7.7 to 4, and promote the use of modern contraception among married women who were of child-bearing age from less than 5% to 44%.
Although abortion is prohibited by Criminal Code, the Ethiopian Parliament approved it in the following circumstances:[10][11] A woman can terminate the child upon a difficulty of giving birth owing to minor or physical disability.
[17] In urban areas, abortions rates are higher than the national average, such as Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa and Harar.
[13] Modern contraceptive adoption is much higher in Addis Ababa (57% among women aged 15–44) than in Ethiopia as whole (14%), while in rural areas it is below national average (3–16%).
This is due to a combination of factors including religious practices, cultural barriers, public stigma and moral beliefs that inherently value the life of the foetus.
A survey of women between the ages of 15-49 from Bahir Dar in North-Eastern Ethiopia shows that two-thirds were aware of the 2005 law, but 57% remained under-educated as to its purposes.
[21] A community-based cross-sectional survey from 2017 found that a woman's age can determine the level of knowledge held regarding the abortion law.