Unsafe abortion is an important public health problem, accountingfor 13% of maternal mortality in developing countries. Of anestimated annual 70 000 deaths from unsafe abortion worldwide,over 99% occur in the developing countries of sub-Saharan Africa,Central and Southeast Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.Factors associated with increased maternal mortality from unsafeabortion in developing countries include inadequate deliverysystems for contraception needed to prevent unwantedpregnancies, restrictive abortion laws, pervading negative culturaland religious attitudes towards induced abortion, and poor healthinfrastructures for the management of abortion complications. Theapplication of a public health approach based on primary,secondary, and tertiary prevention can reduce morbidity andmortality associated with unsafe abortion in developing countries.Primary prevention includes the promotion of increased use ofcontraception by women (and by men) at risk for unwantedpregnancy; secondary prevention involves the liberalization ofabortion laws and the development of programs to increase accessto safe abortion care in developing countries. In contrast, tertiaryprevention includes the integration and institutionalization ofpost-abortion care for incomplete abortion and the early andappropriate treatment of more severe complications of abortion.Efforts to address these problems will contribute both to reducingmaternal mortality associated with induced abortion and toachieving the Millennium Development Goals in developingcountries.