Offering patients medication abortion when they need care has been a game changer at two California hospitals.
JAN 10, 2023
GARNET HENDERSON
When Dr. Andrea Henkel was training at Stanford Health Care, a patient visited the emergency room twice in one week for vomiting associated with early pregnancy. The patient said she didn’t plan on continuing the pregnancy and had an appointment for an abortion the next week.
“She was clearly miserable from a pregnancy that she didn’t want,” Henkel, a complex family planning specialist, said. “I wondered why we couldn’t just initiate her abortion via pills while she was in the emergency department—we already knew her gestational age and medical history, and she was certain on her decision.”