Researchers say Canada's experience offers a roadmap for other countries
Date: December 8, 2021
Source: University of British Columbia
Abortion remains safe after Canada removed restrictions on the medical abortion pill mifepristone in November 2017.
That's one of the key findings from a UBC-led study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Continued: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/12/211208182541.htm
Abortion expert urges Nova Scotia to drop ultrasound rule if access slowed
Carly Weeks
Published September 26, 2018
The lead author of Canada’s national guidelines on drug-induced abortion says Nova Scotia should drop the practice of insisting on an ultrasound when it results in delays in providing the procedure.
The issue was raised this week after The Globe and Mail reported that Nova Scotia’s only abortion clinic is not allowed to perform ultrasounds to determine how far along a pregnancy is, leaving women to wait days or weeks for an appointment at the hospital’s diagnostic imaging unit. In an essay published Saturday, reporter Jessica Leeder outlined the challenges she faced earlier this year in obtaining a medical abortion. Ms. Leeder was told she would need to wait about two weeks for an ultrasound before a doctor could prescribe the abortion drug Mifegymiso. She eventually travelled out of province and paid out of pocket to have a timelier abortion.
Online Abortion Service Women on Web: a vital alternative
May 17th, 2017
A new scientific study published today in the BMJ shows that telemedical abortions are highly effective.
The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Texas in Austin, Princeton University and the University of Edinburgh. They looked at the data of 1,000 women in Ireland and Northern Ireland who used the service of Women on Web. Women on Web is an online service of telemedicine initiated ten years ago by Women on Waves. Women living in countries where access to safe abortions is restricted can use it to access information and be referred to a medical doctor to receive a medical abortion.
For more information about Women on Web: +31624195506 or info@womenonwaves.org
Online abortion service offers vital alternative to unsafe methods to end pregnancy
Results support growing calls for reform of highly restrictive abortion laws
For more information, please contact:
Abigail R A Aiken, LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, TX, USA - Research
Email: araa2@utexas.edu
Wendy V Norman, Associate Professor, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada - Editorial
Email: wendy.norman@ubc.ca
-----------------------------
Source: Women on Waves: https://www.womenonwaves.org/en/page/6985/online-abortion-service-women-on-web--a-vital-alternative
Abortion by telemedicine: an equitable option for Irish women
BMJ 2017; 357 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j2237. Cite this as: BMJ 2017;357:j2237
Published 16 May 2017
Wendy V Norman, associate professor, Bernard M Dickens, professor emeritus of health law and policy
Reassuring study data support growing calls for reform
Women’s need for abortion is no less in countries where abortion is legally restricted. Globally, a quarter of all pregnancies end in abortion, with higher rates in countries with severe legal restrictions than in countries offering safe legal abortion.1 In 1969 the United Nations affirmed the rights of parents to determine the number and spacing of their children.2 Half a century later a key component of this right is not equitably accessible.
Continued at source: BMJ: http://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2237
Abortion pills accessed online are as safe, effective as clinics: study
Telemedicine may be option in countries where service is restricted, researchers suggest
CBC News Posted: May 16, 2017
Medical abortions done at home using pills and an online telemedicine service appear to be just as safe and effective as those done at legal clinics, a new study has found. And it's an approach that the Canadian health-care system may be able to learn from, the author of an accompanying editorial says.
To conduct the study, researchers analyzed the outcomes of 1,023 women in Ireland and Northern Ireland who sought medical abortion services through Women on Web, a non-profit organization that provides access to medications used to induce abortion, between 2010 and 2012. Outcomes were known for 1,000 of those women, and nearly all the women were less than nine weeks into their pregnancy.
Continued at source: CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/medical-abortion-telemedicine-1.4118688
Abortion pill available in less than half of all Canadian provinces three months after rollout
Ashley Csanady | March 30, 2017
The abortion pill is available in less than half of all Canadian provinces and territories three months after it first went on sale in Canada.
Medical experts and advocates had hoped Mifegymiso — the official name of the two-medication drug also know as mifepristone or RU-486 — would help close the gaping urban-rural divide in access to abortion care services in Canada. But three months in, experts warn a strict regulatory regime could further entrench that divide and only existing abortion providers will be willing or able to distribute the pill.
Just five provinces and one territory have requested the drug since its late-January launch, according to its manufacturer: Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and the Yukon.
Mifegymiso can widen access to abortion care by providing a non-surgical option that doesn't have to be administered in a hospital or clinic. (Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo)
Published on Aug 12, 2016
by Terri Coles
TVO.org
Ontario doctors may be able to prescribe and distribute a Health Canada-approved abortion drug by as early as this fall, but some activists and researchers say federal conditions on its use will do little to make pregnancy termination available to the many women who live far from clinics or hospitals that provide abortions.
Mifepristone, also known as RU-486, is a drug that induces a medical abortion by blocking progesterone, a hormone needed to maintain pregnancy. In Canada, where it is sold under the brand name Mifegymiso, federal regulations allow the drug to be taken up to 49 days past a woman’s last menstrual period. Unlike Plan B, which prevents the implantation of a fertilized egg and is meant to be taken within a couple days of having unprotected sex, mifepristone terminates a pregnancy. The drug can widen access to abortion care by providing a non-surgical option that doesn’t have to be administered in a hospital or clinic.
“The nature of the existing restrictions on mifepristone suggest that the motivations to regulate it go beyond considerations for the women’s health,” says Rachael Johnstone, an assistant professor of politics and gender studies at Queen’s University who specializes in Canadian abortion access. “The amount of oversight that’s required is somewhat condescending, and it’s not clear that it’s [medically] required.”
Source: TVO.org
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