 Globally, women, experience inequities in access to safe abortion services and this is most
acutely felt in country contexts where legal abortions are highly restricted. Data around abortion amongst
young women who sell sex (YWSS) in sub-Saharan Africa are very limited. We conducted 30 focus group
discussions and 42 in-depth interviews (IDIs) amongst YWSS (16 – 24 years) in urban and peri-urban areas of
Zimbabwe, as well as IDIs amongst 16 peer educators, ﬁ ve health care providers and four key informants.
Our ﬁ ndings indicate that abortions occur amongst YWSS in Zimbabwe but there remain questions over the
extent of safety of abortions. The restrictive legal context around abortion and illegality of sex work in the
country are key determinants underlying the clandestine nature of abortions. Socioeconomic concerns are
key in decision-making around abortions. Youth, cost and lack of referral networks contribute towards
unsafe abortions, even when safe abortion services are available. Many YWSS are not aware of the
availability of post abortion care (PAC) services and resort to self-administered PAC. Being young and selling
sex combine and interact on the economic and social levels to produce vulnerabilities greater than their sum
to experiencing unsafe abortion.