Incidence of abortion-related near-miss complications in Zambia: cross-sectional study in Central, Copperbelt and Lusaka Provinces

The abortion-related near-miss rate is high in Zambia compared with other restrictive contexts. Our results suggest that near-miss is a promising indicator of unsafe abortion; can be measured using routine hospital data, conveniently defined using the WHO criteria; and can be incorporated into the frequently utilized prospective morbidity methodology.