Posted Sun 28 Aug 2016, 3:57pm
By James Purtill, ABC News
Ten years since the medical abortion drug RU486 was made available in Australia, and three years since it was listed with other taxpayer subsidised drugs, the legacy of the abortion taboo remains.
It's estimated around one-in-four pregnancies in Australia, or about 80,000 per year, end in abortion - the vast majority of them surgical procedures.
Access to medical abortions - the pill kind - is limited by the fact relatively few GPs offer the service, and some young women, particularly in regional areas, are still not even aware they may take a pill to abort an early-stage pregnancy, instead of going through surgery.
Complementary studies of access to medical abortions in Victoria paint a picture of small town GPs wary of stigma, and of women cobbling together information about their options through google search and the recommendations of friends and family.
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Source: ABC News