title: Implementing the mental health indication to help ensure access to safe abortion.
abstract: This paper recommends implementation of the mental health indication for legal abortion to help reduce high rates of death and injury from unsafe abortion. Legal abortion to preserve a women's mental health is explicitly recognized in the laws of 23 countries. However, the law is implemented in different countries in varied ways, giving rise to a range of access to safe abortion among countries with similar laws. In this paper, I propose the enactment of guidelines for implementing the mental health indication to improve access to safe abortion. Such guidelines should enable providers to consider a woman's social and economic circumstances in determining the risk of pregnancy to her mental health. This approach is supported by global health authorities and psychological research. I also present empirical and legal support for the notion that abortion can lead to favorable mental health outcomes, as is implicit in the mental health indication.
authors.affiliation: MPP, Ipas, Philadelphia, USA.
authors.forename: Patty
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Skuster
mesh_terms: D000029:Abortion, Legal / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health; D011247:Pregnancy; D016387:Women's Health