A bigger percentage of women picked medical abortions after unsuccessfully trying other pregnancy termination methods.
"Most women are using medication abortion because it provides a lot of secrecy, but sometimes they begin with harmful methods, they fail leading them to medication abortion,' said Juma, noting that medication is majorly use of tablets bought in chemists, or offered in a some hospitals.
The report attribute the abortion to unintended pregnancies.
For example in 2023, there were a total of 2, 850, 346 pregnancies in Kenya, of which 1, 435, 998 were unintended and 792, 694 ended in induced abortions.
"This corresponds to an unintended pregnancy rate of 103. 8 per cent per 1,00 women of reproductive age, an induced abortion incidence rate of 57.3 per cent per 1,000 women of reproductive age, and induced abortion ratio of 48.1 per 100 live births," added a section of the findings.
"Unintended pregnancy is the highest contributor of induced abortions," said Juma. "We need to empower women to know when to get pregnant. Of all pregnancies, about half were unintended".
Geographically, Central Region and Nairobi led with 234,125 cases, Nyanza and Western reported 222,196, Rift Valley 153,314, Eastern 108,910, while Coast and North Eastern recorded 74,150 cases of abortions.
Similarly, Kenyan regions with the highest unintended-pregnancy rates also report the highest induced-abortion rates.
Nationally, the unintended-pregnancy rate stood at 104.1 per 1,000 women, of which 48.3 percent resulted in induced abortion.
In Nyanza and Western were leading with the highest cases of unintended-pregnancy rate at 138.9 percent, where at least 60.7 percent end in abortion.
Central and Nairobi recorded 96.6 per 1,000 unintended pregnancies, 72.4 percent of which were terminated. In Coast and North Eastern, the rate was 78.4 per 1,000, and 30.3 percent of those pregnancies were induced abortions.
For many women who develop complications after an abortion, the first point of care is often at dispensaries or Level II hospitals, which then refer the most serious cases up the chain to Level III, IV, V and VI facilities-where staffing, equipment and technology are better suited to deliver comprehensive treatment.
According to the report, "more than half of all the women with post-abortion complications were treated in public health facilities (50.6 percent), and seven in ten women were treated in primary-level facilities (69.3 per cent)."
To address these gaps, the researchers urge an urgent scale-up of family-planning services and improvements in the quality of post-abortion care, with particular attention to removing barriers faced by adolescents and young women.
They also call for strengthening the capacity of lower-level health facilities through targeted training of mid-level providers and by ensuring that dispensaries and health centres are consistently supplied with the necessary post-abortion care commodities and equipment.
"Evidence demonstrates that abortion-related morbidities and deaths are preventable with improved access to safe abortion and family planning services," underscored the report.
In 2023, the national treatment rate for post-abortion care peaked in the Eastern region at 27.1 per 1,000 women, followed closely by Nyanza and Western at 24.9 per 1,000, and Nairobi and Central at 23.3 per 1,000.
ALSO READ: Pregnancy dilemma: When abortion is the only way out
In contrast, the Rift Valley region recorded the lowest treatment rate of 16.9 per 1,000.
Of the 304,159 women who received post-abortion care that year, approximately 256,620 were treated for complications arising from induced abortions, while the remaining 47,540 sought care following spontaneous abortions.
Of the 13,594 total facilities in Kenya as of July 2022, 658 hospitals participated in the survey.
Nationally, more than eight in ten hospitals that took part in the study reported that they provide post-abortion care, though public hospitals and Level II facilities lag slightly behind, at 78.6 percent and 73.8 percent coverage, respectively.
In 2023 alone, a total of 304,159 women both those who underwent induced abortions and those who experienced spontaneous miscarriages received post-abortion treatment in Kenyan health facilities.
Over half of these women (51 percent) were treated in public hospitals, yet the majority (69.3 percent) sought care at lower-level, primary-level centres.
Juma, reflecting on the findings, observed that "the biggest burden of abortion complications falls on public hospitals. Most cases first present at Level II facilities, where only severe complications get referred up.
Yet government funding prioritizes Level V and VI hospitals. We must strengthen Level II and III facilities, because women with bleeding complications show up there and without adequate resources, they are at risk of dying."