Delhi-based abortion pill manufacturer makes its way around the globe despite failing in quality test

Nonprofit DKT International distributes medicines made in India to women around the world. Some of those drugs are now finding their way into the US through unauthorized online channels.

03 Aug 2023
Edited By Mansi Jaswal

Medication abortions are one of the preferred methods for ending pregnancy around the world in contrast to surgical, according to the World Health Organization. Over the past 30 years, more than 60 countries have liberalised their abortion laws and India is among them. All women, including those not married, could get an abortion for up to 24 weeks in India.

Debates around abortion rights have become more prominent nowadays but the medications and how safe they are, have taken a back seat.

Continued: https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/delhibased-abortion-pill-manufacturer-synokem-sells-medicine-to-dkt-international-gates-foundation-11691031202113.html


Desperate pleas and smuggled pills: A covert abortion network rises after Roe

Amid legal and medical risks, a growing army of activists is funneling pills from Mexico into states that have banned abortion

By Caroline Kitchener
October 18, 2022

Monica had never used Reddit before. But sitting at her desk one afternoon in July — at least 10 weeks into an unwanted pregnancy in a state that had banned abortion — she didn’t know where else to turn.

“I need advice I am not prepared to have a child,” the 25-year-old wrote from her office, once everyone else had left for the day. She titled her post, “PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!”

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/illegal-abortion-pill-network/


DKT International Helps Maintain Global Access to Family Planning Despite Conflict and Inflation of Goods and Services

April 25, 2022

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Much like Europe after World War II, political instability in war-torn countries, social and economic upheaval, religious constraints, and large refugee populations from Ukraine, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, and Somalia set public health initiatives like family planning significantly back or completely unavailable. Clinics close and doctors move on--despite such challenges, DKT International, one of the world’s largest providers of family planning, HIV/AIDS and safe abortion products and services, steps in to fill a growing unmet need as a critical provider of condoms and other contraception.

“Often, in times of conflict, the right or ability to access family planning is one of the first things women lose,” says Chris Purdy, CEO of DKT International. “It’s every woman’s right to choose when and if to have children, and envision a world where every child is wanted, which speaks directly to the goals of FP2030 to enable women and girls to have access to affordable modern contraceptives.”

Continued: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220415005020/en/DKT-International-Helps-Maintain-Global-Access-to-Family-Planning-Despite-Conflict-and-Inflation-of-Goods-and-Services


Abortion pills are booming worldwide. Will their use grow in Texas?

By Samantha Schmidt  and Sammy Westfall
Sept 14, 2021

In the 1980s, women in Brazil began spreading the word about a pill used to treat ulcers. Sold over the counter, the drug carried a warning: Don’t use during pregnancy; risk of miscarriage.

It flew off the shelves. Hundreds of thousands of women, desperate for abortions in a country where the procedure was criminalized, now had an option.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/14/abortion-pills-texas/


Millions of women lose contraceptives, abortions in COVID-19

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL and CARA ANNA, Associated Press
19 August 2020

NEW DELHI -- Millions of women and girls globally have lost access to contraceptives and abortion services because of the coronavirus pandemic. Now the first widespread measure of the toll says India with its abrupt, months-long lockdown has been hit especially hard.

Several months into the pandemic, many women now have second-trimester pregnancies because they could not find care in time.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/baby-boom-ahead-covid-19-millions-women-care-72460772


The Sexual-Health Supply Chain Is Broken

The Sexual-Health Supply Chain Is Broken
Condoms, birth control, and other items are harder to get in the developing world because of the pandemic. That is putting lives at risk.

Anna Louie Sussman
June 8, 2020

It took Dimos Sakellaridis about six years to build Kiss condoms into one of Nigeria’s top brands, with approximately 91 million sold in 2019. The prophylactics are available in shops, markets, and kiosks across the country, and a combination of irreverent advertising, a growing population of young people, and a greater understanding of reproductive health within Nigeria has meant his sales have steadily risen.

But if he can’t get a shipment of 12 million condoms (and 4 million packs of birth-control pills) out of the Lagos port soon, those stocks will run out. And unfortunately for Sakellaridis, it makes no difference to the customs authorities, who are working their way through a backlog of containers, that ordinary Nigerians depend on Sakellaridis’s stranded cargo to prevent unwanted pregnancies and stop the spread of sexually transmitted infections. All he can do is wait—and he is not alone.

Continued: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/06/coronavirus-pandemic-sex-health-condoms-reproductive-health/612298/


How coronavirus is changing access to abortion

How coronavirus is changing access to abortion
Health care practitioners are struggling to maintain access to contraception and abortions during the pandemic.

By MIRIAM WEBBER
05/21/2020

As the coronavirus steamrolls the global order, reproductive health care practitioners and advocates are struggling to maintain access to contraception and abortions.

Lockdowns and disrupted supply chains have prompted a flurry of action in the sector as governments, practitioners and advocates react to a crisis that has highlighted the often tenuous access to sexual health care products and services.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/21/how-coronavirus-is-changing-access-to-abortion-273193


The Coronavirus Is Cutting Off Africa’s Abortion Access

The Coronavirus Is Cutting Off Africa’s Abortion Access
The collapse of medical supply chains has been a catastrophe for women in developing countries. Lockdowns have made matters worse.

By Neha Wadekar
May 4, 2020

When Shali Iminza, 27, missed her period in March, the married mother of three felt her stomach sink with dread. Iminza, whose first name has been changed for privacy reasons, works as a farmer in western Kenya, and her husband is a motorcycle taxi driver. Together, they barely make enough money to feed their family. “Sometimes we eat three times [per day], sometimes two,” Iminza told Foreign Policy and Type Investigations over the phone. “Things are very expensive, and to get money nowadays, it’s hard.”

Unable to care for another child, Iminza visited a local health clinic, walking more than 3 miles to save money on the taxi fare. When she arrived, the doctor informed Iminza that the pills she would need to terminate her pregnancy were unavailable because of shortages caused by the novel coronavirus. “I’m very angry because the more the days are going, the pregnancy is now growing, so I don’t know what to do,” said Iminza, her voice trembling from stress.

Continued: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/04/coronavirus-africa-abortion-access/


USA – Doctors call for restrictions to be lifted on abortion pills so patients don’t have to travel for care during the coronavirus pandemic

Doctors call for restrictions to be lifted on abortion pills so patients don't have to travel for care during the coronavirus pandemic

Shira Feder
Apr 6, 2020

On March 26, Dr. Jamila Perritt performed an abortion. It was a few weeks into America's coronavirus outbreak, and one-in-three Americans were under orders to stay home and shelter in place. Over 80,000 Americans had been infected with the new coronavirus, Congress was debating a trillion dollar stimulus bill to boost an economy that had come to a screeching halt, and only workers deemed essential were going to work.

That included Perritt, a doctor who provides abortion care in the Washington, DC, area. Her patient had an ultrasound weeks prior, revealing that the fetus had a genetic abnormality. The woman was trying to schedule an appointment at a DC hospital to have it handled, but hadn't been able to get in.

Continued: https://www.insider.com/abortion-providers-pivot-to-telemedicine-during-coronavirus-2020-3