To address the high rate of maternal mortality and suffering caused by postabortion complications—and to prevent unwanted pregnancies—the PRIME II Project developed and tested a series of strategically targeted interventions at the primary-care level. Because fewer than half the women who experience serious postabortion complications receive hospital treatment, PRIME’s strategy was to expand and improve the reproductive health care available to women in their own communities through nurses, midwives and other primary providers.

Leading a task force of the Postabortion Care (PAC) Consortium, PRIME helped to develop Essential Elements of Postabortion Care, an expanded and updated model for PAC.

PRIME contributed to significant progress in expanding the availability of quality postabortion care and family planning services at the primary level in many countries around the world. Women are increasingly able to access services closer to the communities where they live and work. More women know about PAC services and where they are available. Policy makers and leaders of the health community are more likely to acknowledge the problem of maternal mortality and morbidity from unsafe abortion and more receptive to policies authorizing PAC by trained providers at primary-level facilities. Yet there remains a long road ahead in realizing the goals of widespread access to family planning services for all women and men who want to prevent or space pregnancy and to comprehensive PAC services for women who suffer complications from unsafe or incomplete abortion.