Standardizing Abortion Research Outcomes (STAR): A Protocol for Developing, Disseminating and Implementing a Core Outcome Set for Medical and Surgical Abortion

Contraception; May 1, 2017; Vol. 95(5):437–441; doi:10.1016/j.contraception.2016.12.009

Approximately one in four of all pregnancies will end in induced abortion with an estimated 56 million taking place worldwide every year. Medical and surgical abortions have low complication rates; however, due to the ubiquity of abortion and the potential for complications if performed unsafely or inappropriately, the need for robust clinical trials and sound guidelines and recommendations is clear. Besides the recent release of the Medical Abortion Reporting of Efficacy guidelines, there is a lack of standardized methods for selecting and reporting on outcomes in abortion clinical trials.