Table 3 Expert panel meetings in preparation of the CAPS 2019

1

First trimester MA

n = 7

FP, Ob&Gyn, RN; administrator; rural and urban; private office and abortion clinic based

• Definition of most responsible provider as the person who signs the prescription in order to avoid double reporting of procedures

• Definition of clinical scenarios/terminology such as pregnancy of unknown location to ensure respondents correctly understand question

2

First trimester surgical abortion

n = 6

FP, Ob&Gyn; administrator; rural and urban; academic and community hospital based

• Clarification of variations in service delivery around for example variations in ultrasound and counseling provision in order to provide sensical answer options

• Definition of prophylactic antibiotic use versus as clinically indicated to ensure respondents correctly understand answer options

3

Registered midwives (RM)

n = 7

RM, Ob&Gyn, researcher

• RMs cannot independently prescribe mifepristone for first trimester MA

• Regulations and practice around collaborative care between physicians and RMs are complex and highly variable. We will not adequately capture those in a survey and, therefore, RMs are not eligible to participate

4

Nurse practitioners (NP)

n = 8

RN, NP, Ob&Gyn, researcher

• Only NPs can independently prescribe mifepristone for first trimester MA. Therefore, they are eligible to participate in the survey

• RNs cannot independently prescribe mifepristone. Regulations and practice around collaborative care between physicians or NPs and RNs are complex and highly variable. We will not adequately capture those in a survey and therefore RNs are not eligible to participate

5

Second trimester surgical abortion

n = 5

Ob&Gyn; administrator; rural and urban; academic and community hospital based

• Definition of abortion for life fetus rather than management of spontaneous intrauterine fetal demise in order to ensure respondents correctly identify their eligibility to that survey section and report accurate procedure numbers

• Ensure consistent definitions and wording of question and answers between survey sections

• Avoid redundancies between survey sections such as testing and management of Rhesus status

6

Stigma and harassment

n = 7

Ob&Gyn, SW, sociologist, researchers who developed validated stigma scale

• Replace the validated stigma scale we used in our 2012 survey with the updated validated scale of the same research team[17]

• Adjust terminology from abortion providers to health care providers who offer abortion care to better fit how our study population might self-identify

• Considerations to explore additional constructs of cultural [29] or structural competence [30] but decided that the first was not comprehensive enough and the latter not validated enough to be a good fit for this survey. Rather added a survey sections to explore respondents training about and approach to providing care for diverse populations

7

Second/third trimester MA

n = 6

general Ob&Gyn, MFM; administrator; rural and urban; academic and community hospital based

• Terminology of labour induction versus second trimester MA to avoid confusion among respondents

• Definition of number of procedure as number of deliveries in order to avoid double counting MAs, as many labor inductions will involve multiple providers

• Expanding answer options around consultation services to capture variations in service delivery between provider specialties, provinces, and rural versus urban hospitals

• Meaningful Likert scale to answer questions around frequency of use or strength of recommendations around clinical care aspects