Zambia has permitted terminations of pregnancy, under a range of conditions, since 1972. Despite this, levels of unsafe abortion are alarmingly high. Although it’s widely understood that unsafe abortion is both a cause and a consequence of poverty, there is a lack of economic evidence around the experiences of women and their households. This presentation compares the socio-economic burden of those who seek safe abortion (SA) with those who seek post-abortion care (PAC) after an unsafe procedure. We use hospital based data collected in the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka over a period of 12 months in 2013. Information on women’s demographic and socio-economic characteristics, and direct and indirect costs incurred have been collected and triangulated using medical notes and qualitative information.