An outcome evaluation of counseling services provided by abortion clinics.

With the reduction in need for elective abortion as a long-term goal, the effectiveness of abortion clinic counseling programs provided at the time of elective pregnancy termination is evaluated using post-abortion contraceptive behavior as a measure. Using eight, free-standing abortion clinics located in Chicago, Illinois a control group design is employed in order to examine the hypothesis that patients attending clinics which provide a structured, comprehensive birth control counseling session at the time of their abortion will show a higher use rate of effective contraceptive methods than those patients attending clinics which do not provide such information. Results support this hypothesis. The differences are particularly noticeable in the subpopulation of teenagers with no preabortion history of contraceptive use.