Introduction Disrespect and abuse during childbirth is the main deterring factor to skilled birth utilization as compared to other more commonly known factors such as financial and physical inaccessibility. Objective To assess the occurrence of women's disrespect and abuse during childbirth in public health facilities in Arba Minch town, south Ethiopia. Methods Institution based cross-sectional study design was employed at all public health institutions in Arba Minch town, south Ethiopia.

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... atic sampling method was used to include 281 women who had given birth at public health institutions between January 01 and February 28, 2017. Data were collected by face to face interview by four midwife tutors and supervised by the principal investigator on daily bases. Semi-structured pretested questionnaire was used to collect data. Epi info version 7.1.2.0 and SPSS version 24 were used to enter and analyze the data respectively. Results A total of 281 women were participated in this study. The overall prevalence of non-respectful care was 98.9%. The women's right to information and informed consent was the most frequently violated right with a prevalence of 92.5% (95% CI: 90.9, 94.1) followed by non-dignified care (36.7, 95% CI: 34.9, 38.5), physical abuse (29.5%, 95% CI: 24.2, 34.8), discrimination (18.1%, 95% CI: 13.6, 22.6), non-confidential care (17.1%, 95% CI: 12.7, 21.5) and abandonment of care (4.3%, 95% CI: 3.1, 5.5). However, there is no woman who had been kept in detention in the health facilities. Being rural resident, giving birth in hospital, having no or low educational status and giving birth by cesarean route were factors which were significantly associated with specific women's rights violations. Conclusions and recommendations The status of non-respectful and abusive care in the health care facilities in this study area is unacceptably high and needs serious attention by the health managers to tackle the problem.