Japan approves abortion pill for the first time

Health ministry gives green light for two-step treatment to end pregnancies up to nine weeks

Agence France-Presse in Tokyo
Sat 29 Apr 2023

The abortion pill is to become available in Japan for the first time after the health ministry approved a drug used to terminate early-stage pregnancies.

Abortion is legal in Japan up to 22 weeks, but consent is usually required from a spouse or partner, and until now a surgical procedure had been the only option.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/29/japan-approves-abortion-pill-for-the-first-time

29.04.2023

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approval of mifepristone

Japan approves first abortion pill, decades after other countries

By Jessie Yeung and Eru Ishikawa, CNN
Mon April 24, 2023

A panel in Japan’s health ministry has approved the country’s first abortion pill, in a major step for reproductive rights decades after other countries made abortion medication widely available.

The ministry’s pharmaceutical board granted approval on Friday to the MeFeego Pack, an abortion pill manufactured by British pharmaceutical Linepharma, according to a spokesperson from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/24/asia/japan-abortion-pill-approved-intl-hnk/index.html

24.04.2023

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Japan panel approves nation’s first abortion pill

BY KATHLEEN BENOZA
Apr 21, 2023

A health ministry panel on Friday approved the country’s first abortion pill, which would provide an alternative to a surgical procedure amid calls for progress in women’s reproductive rights and gender equality.

The ministry announced the move after a secondary panel reviewed 12,000 public comments collected online. Final approval from the health minister is expected to follow, but the timing remains unclear.

Continued: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/04/21/national/abortion-pill-japan-approval/

Progressives failed Canadian women on the abortion pill

The struggle to get Canadian women a good non-surgical option for abortion received little attention for years

Jamie Sarkonak, National Post
Jun 30, 2022

Before 2017, nearly all Canadian women seeking abortions had to undergo surgery, while women elsewhere could choose medication to induce a miscarriage.

For decades, Canada didn’t have the “gold standard” abortion pill, mifepristone (also known as RU-486, or Mifegymiso). After being used in France for 30 years and the United States for 15, the abortion pill was finally approved in Canada in 2015 under Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, becoming available to the public in 2017. Among progressive politicians, only Thomas Mulcair’s New Democratic Party had pressed the issue. The Liberals did nothing. On the last major front for Canadian abortion rights, progressive politicians were largely silent.

Continued: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/jamie-sarkonak-progressives-failed-canadian-women-on-the-abortion-pill

30.06.2022

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British firm to seek approval for abortion pill in Japan

The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan Times
November 21, 2021

British pharmaceutical company Linepharma plans to apply to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry for approval of the abortion pill in late December, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Approval is expected within a year if the review process goes smoothly. It would be the first orally consumed abortion pill, or medication abortion, available in Japan, and is expected to help reduce the related physical and mental burden on women.

Continued: https://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0008015494

21.11.2021

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INVIMA approves mifepristone for abortion in Colombia

INVIMA approves mifepristone for abortion in Colombia
by Safe Abortion
March 31, 2017

On 3 March 2017, it was announced that Colombia’s Instituto Nacional de Vigilancia de Medicamentos y Alimentos (National Food and Drug Surveillance Institute, INVIMA) had approved the registration of mifepristone in Colombia for use in combination with misoprostol for induced abortion.

According to the Gynuity Health Projects website, mifepristone has been available (up to June 2016) only in Guyana and Uruguay in South America.

Profamilia, Colombia’s national family planning organisation, hope to begin providing the combination method in the second quarter of this year according to Marta Royo, Profamilia’s Executive Director.

Royo reports that in March 2012 Profamilia started all the procedures required in order to introduce mifepristone in Colombia: “It took five years and tons of paperwork, meetings and lobbying, she said, but we made it!!!! We are thrilled at INVIMA´s granting of approval but to be honest, also a little bit scared…. I won’t truly believed it until I see Mifepristona in Profamilia´s clinics and of course other clinics as well.”

SOURCES: El Espectador, 3 March 2017 ; E-mail from Marta Royo, 22 March 2017

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Source: International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/invima-approves-mifepristone-for-abortion-in-colombia/