Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37147096›Full record

ArticleBMJ open2023

Impact of the global gag rule on women's contraceptive use and reproductive health outcomes in Ethiopia: a pre-post and difference-in-difference analysis.

Elizabeth A Sully, Assefa Seme, Solomon Shiferaw, Doris W Chiu, Suzanne O Bell, Margaret Giorgio

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Article in BMJ open, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Elizabeth A SullyGuttmacher Institute, New York city, New York, USA esully@guttmacher.org.ORCID 0000-0002-0736-2237
Assefa SemeSchool of Public Health, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Solomon ShiferawSchool of Public Health, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Doris W ChiuGuttmacher Institute, New York city, New York, USA.
Suzanne O BellDepartment of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Margaret GiorgioGuttmacher Institute, New York city, New York, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTo assess the impacts of the Protecting Life through Global Health Assistance policy (otherwise known as the expanded global gag rule (GGR)) on women's sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in Ethiopia. The GGR prohibits all non-US non-governmental organisations (NGOs) receiving US Government global health funding from providing, referring or advocating for abortion.

designPre-post analysis and difference-in-difference analysis.

settingSix regions of Ethiopia (Tigray, Afar, Amhara, Oromiya, SNNPR and Addis Ababa).

participantsPanel of 4909 reproductive-age women recruited from the Performance Monitoring for Accountability 2018 survey, administered face-to-face surveys in 2018 and 2020. MEASURES: We assessed impacts of the GGR on contraceptive use, pregnancies, births and abortions. Due to the 2019 'Pompeo Expansion' and widespread application of the GGR, we use a pre-post analysis to investigate changes in women's reproductive outcomes. We then use a difference-in-differences design to measure the additional effect of NGOs refusal to comply with the policy and the resulting loss in funding; districts are classified as more exposed if organisations impacted by lost funding were providing services there and women are classified based on their district.

resultsAt baseline, 27% (n=1365) of women were using a modern contraceptive (7% using long-acting reversible contraceptive methods (LARCs) and 20% using short-acting methods. The pre-post analysis revealed statistically significant declines from 2018 to 2020 in the use of LARCs (-0.9, 95% CI: -1.6 to -0.2) and short-acting methods (-1.0, 95% CI: -1.8 to -0.2). These changes were deviations from prior trends. In our difference-in-differences analysis, women exposed to non-compliant organisations experienced greater declines in LARC use (-1.5, 95% CI: -2.9 to -0.1) and short-acting method use (-1.7, 95% CI: -3.2 to -0.1) as compared with less-exposed women.

conclusionsThe GGR resulted in a stagnation in the previous growth in contraceptive use in Ethiopia. Longer-term strategies are needed to ensure that SRH progress globally is protected from changes in US political administrations.

Indexed as

Abortion, SpontaneousFamily Planning ServicesContraceptive AgentsEthiopiaFemaleGlobal HealthHumansPregnancyReproductive HealthUnited StatesContraceptive Agentshealth policypublic healthreproductive medicine

Identifiers

PMID37147096
PMCPMC10163537

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.