Abortion Harm Reduction: The Approach of a Safe Abortion Hotline in Indonesia

Caitlin Gerdts, University of California, San Francisco
Elise Belusa, University of California, San Francisco
Inna Hudaya, Samsara, Indonesia

In settings where abortion is legally restricted, women are increasingly choosing misoprostol for self-induction of abortion, and in Indonesia where this practice is common, safe abortion hotlines are particularly useful for harm reduction. Descriptive data of women calling a safe abortion hotline in Indonesia are presented, along with preliminary results of In-depth interviews conducted among Indonesian women who have safely self-induced abortions using medication. A majority of the 1,214 initial callers to the Samsara Hotline in Indonesia, were unmarried women seeking information about the medication abortion process or safety, where three-quarters reported calling because they are not ready for children. These finding indicates a demand for information about abortion in Indonesia, and the importance of abortion hotline data in understanding abortion practices outside of legal settings. The advantages of abortion hotline data to better understand the magnitude and experiences with misoprostol for self-induction are discussed.