This publication has been edited by Prof. Suneeta Mittal, Chief Co-ordinator of the Consortium on National Consensus for Medical Abortion in India. The Consortium is grateful to all those who contributed towards the success of this activity.

We express our sincere thanks to Smt Sushma Swaraj, Shri JVR Prasada Rao, Dr S P Agarwal, Dr N K Ganguly, Dr P K Dave, Dr Helena von Hertzen, Dr Monir Islam and Dr Padam Singh for gracing he occasion. Our thanks also to Shri P K Hota the present Secretary Family Welfare, GOI for writing the foreword. We are grateful to all the chairpersons and resource persons including Dr Sharad Iyengar, Dr M C Kapilashrami, Dr Batya Elul, Dr V K Manchanda, Dr Marc Bygdman, Dr O S Tang, Dr Gillian C Penney, Dr S N Mukherjee, Dr Arvind Mathur, Dr Mihai Horga, Dr Wu Shangchun, Dr Bela Ganatra, Dr Mira Shiva, Dr Nozer Sherier, Ms Shalini Kumar, Dr Kalpana Apte, Dr Vatsala Dadhwal, Dr V S Chandrashekhar, Dr Rekha Daver, Dr Vinita Das, Dr Sujata Singh, Dr Kaberi Banerjee, Dr Deepika Deka, Dr Sudha
Prasad, Dr N C Saxena, Dr Suneeta Mittal, Dr Kurus J Koyaji, Dr Usha Krishna, Dr Rashmi Shah, Dr Alok Banerjee and all the members of the expert groups for their valuable scientific contribution during the consortium. We would also like to acknowledge with thanks the assistance which Dr Nupur Gupta and Dr Pakhee Aggarwal gave in preparing the drafts of presentations.

The Consortium activity has been largely made possible by a core grant from WHO, Geneva; WHO-WR India and MOHFW, Govt. of India for holding the 3-day meeting of Open Forum (6th March) and Expert Forum (7-8th March, 2003) at AIIMS, New Delhi.

The views expressed in the publication are ither independent views of the experts and participants or represent a consensus view of the group as a whole, and need not, necessarily, be considered as the views of MOHFW, WHO and ICMR or otherpartners.