About the Pipeline
The African Abortion Science Pipeline is developed jointly by ACORCA-COARCA and Centre ODAS. This resource can be used by advocates, researchers, and implementing partners to support their work in improving access to safe and comprehensive abortion care in Africa.
How does it work?
The pipeline database draws from a weekly systematic search of PubMed, a globally respected scientific database of quality journals on public health and medicine. The peer-reviewed papers are identified using a broad range of search terms on abortion and African countries, as described in the search methodology below.
Key Dashboard Features:
- Flexible Parameters: You can search and filter the repository dynamically by country, language, publication year, or using your preferred search terms.
- Full-text Links: The database includes direct access links to the full papers—the majority of which are completely open access.
Supporting Researchers, Communicators and Advocates
The repository makes peer-reviewed research on abortion in Africa easier to find, use, and learn from. As an open-access database, it offers a practical starting point for advocacy, literature reviews, and research planning. It helps users quickly identify relevant evidence, track where research is being produced across the region, and spot important gaps where further work is needed.
We hope it will serve as a useful, accessible tool for anyone looking to strengthen evidence-informed advocacy and research on abortion care in Africa.
Integration with the Member Zone: This repository can be used alongside ACORCA-COARCA’s Member Zone, which provides access to broader literature and reports on abortion in Africa—including “grey literature” and reports from government and civil society. To access the Member Zone, please log in, or apply to become an ACORCA member here.
Search Methods
The Pipeline system conducts an automated weekly search of PubMed to identify newly published literature on abortion across the African continent. Reports are extracted into a cloud-based sheet, which feeds our searchable, open-access database hosted on this website.
The tailored search strategy was designed to capture a broad range of abortion-related research, including studies on induced abortion, medical and procedural/surgical abortion, menstrual regulation, and post-abortion care. The search also covered terms for Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and individual African countries. French-language terms were included to improve coverage of literature from francophone settings, while exclusion criteria were applied to remove animal-only and clearly irrelevant records. Papers include research conducted by both Africa-based and internationally-affiliated authors.