New mobile phone app helps healthcare workers provide comprehensive abortion care

7 August 2023
World Health Organization

Healthcare workers have the right to access the most up-to-date evidence-based information, to help them provide comprehensive abortion care. In recognition of this, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Special Programme of Research in Human Reproduction (HRP) launched a new “digital decision support tool” or app, available on Apple and Google Play, to support caregivers in the process of decision-making, and using the WHO Abortion care guideline, to provide comprehensive abortion care.

This app takes the individual characteristics of patients and generates patient-specific assessments or recommendations, which can then be given to healthcare providers to consider. The tool guides the healthcare worker through assessing abortion-seekers for possible risks, and also gives them checklists and further context to help them in managing cases. It helps to minimize possible mistakes in abortion provision, and even schedules individualized post-abortion follow-ups and referrals.

Continued; https://www.who.int/news/item/07-08-2023-new-mobile-phone-app-helps-healthcare-workers-provide-comprehensive-abortion-care

07.08.2023

digital decision support tool

mobile phone app

UN Special Programme of Research in Human Reproduction

WHO Abortion Care guidelines

World Health Organization

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

Bridging The Digital Gender Divide For SRHR In Africa

July 17, 2023
Divya Mathew, Policy and Advocacy Director, Women Deliver and Dona Anyona, Regional Policy and Advocacy Manager, Amref Health Africa

Women and girls must be given priority in designing, developing and applying digital solutions, to bring about sustainable and effective gender-transformative solutions in health.

Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is an essential human right and development issue that has a direct impact on the lives and well-being of women and girls across the world. This right is enshrined in various international and regional human rights instruments, including national laws that require innovation and collective action to empower women and girls. Now, more than ever, it is important that the sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women and girls are protected and that they have continued access to high quality and affordable healthcare.

Continued: https://www.forbesafrica.com/brand-voice/2023/07/17/bridging-the-digital-gender-divide-for-srhr-in-africa/

17.07.2023

2030 Sustainable Development Goals

sexual and reproductive health and rights

Women Deliver

World Health Organization

Africa

Health

Human Rights

USA – People are using abortion medication later in their pregnancies. Here’s what that means.

The regimen is common and considered safe after 10 weeks, but the delays are cause for concern.

By Anna North
Jun 18, 2023

A patient takes one medication, mifepristone, which stops the pregnancy from developing, followed one to two days later by another medication, misoprostol, which induces contractions that empty the uterus. The regimen, approved for abortions in the US since 2000, is effective and very safe, according to physicians and researchers, with a low incidence of serious side effects, and it’s the most common method of abortion in the US. It’s approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the first 70 days, or 10 weeks, of pregnancy, though the World Health Organization recommends medication abortion for up to 12 weeks.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, however, nothing about abortion is simple anymore. With near-total abortion bans in place in more than a dozen states and gestational limits in several others, the procedure is growing harder to access by the day. Meanwhile, a federal court case is casting further doubt on the future of mifepristone’s availability in the US.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/23755658/abortion-pill-second-trimester-mifepristone-misoprostol

New clinical handbook launched to support quality abortion care

World Health Organization
12 June 2023

The World Health Organization (WHO) today released a new handbook for health workers to help them deliver quality abortion services for women and girls. The publication provides detailed clinical advice to support implementation of WHO’s consolidated guidance on abortion care, published in 2022.

Clinical services relating to abortion include not only the procedure itself, but also the provision of information and counselling, pain management and post-abortion care, including contraception. In line with WHO’s updated recommendations, the Clinical practice handbook for quality abortion care additionally provides expanded guidance on how health workers can support self-management approaches, and telemedicine, where this is available.

Continued: https://www.who.int/news/item/12-06-2023-new-clinical-handbook-launched-to-support-quality-abortion-care

12.06.2023

News

Clinical practice handbook for quality abortion care

Comprehensive Abortion Care Unit

Dr Bela Ganatra

Dr Pascale Allotey

essential medicine list

self-managed abortion

United Nations’ Special Programme for Human Reproduction

WHO

World Health Organization

Global

Health

Human Rights

Mifepristone Is Under Legal Threat. The Other Abortion Pill Could Be Next

BY ALICE PARK
APRIL 25, 2023

The abortion pill mifepristone has been on uncertain legal ground ever since a Texas judge ruled that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s approval more than two decades ago should be suspended. After the Department of Justice appealed the decision and requested that the Supreme Court step in, the high court decided that mifepristone should remain available while courts continue to decide its legal fate in a potentially lengthy appeals process.

With one abortion pill in legal limbo, experts are now worried about possible threats to the other one: misoprostol. The drug is FDA approved to treat ulcers and, when used with mifepristone, to induce abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. Taking the pills together is more effective and linked to fewer side effects than using misoprostol alone. In many parts of the world, however, doctors use misoprostol alone for abortions. Health-care providers can still use misoprostol on its own for abortions or to manage miscarriages in what’s called “off-label” use, a common practice that allows them to prescribe any approved drug for purposes other than those for which they are indicated.

Continued: https://time.com/6274075/abortion-pill-misoprostol-legal-threat/

Safe havens? As some nations restrict access, a look at Europe’s abortion limits

19/04/2023
Joanna YORK

As US states and nations such as Poland move towards restricting access to abortions, parts of Europe are seen as something of a safe haven for those looking to terminate pregnancies. However, a look at legislation across the continent shows vast discrepancies and how – even if the procedure is often legal – access to abortion is restricted by hurdles ranging from mandatory counselling to a lack of doctors willing to perform the procedure.

More than 95% of women in Europe live in countries that allow some access to abortion. Some 39 European countries have legalised abortion on request, albeit with some restrictions. Six countries have strict limits in place although only three (Andorra, Malta and San Marino) do not allow abortion at all.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20230419-safe-havens-as-some-nations-restrict-access-a-look-at-europe-s-limits-on-abortion

WHO Director General Calls on Countries to Protect Women’s Right to Abortion

18/04/2023
Megha Kaveri

Two weeks after a Texas judge stirred controversy by banning a popular US abortion pill, WHO’s Director General has explicitly re-affirmed the organization’s support for abortion rights, stating that “women should always have the right to choose when it comes to their bodies and their health”.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ comments came just a day before the US Supreme Court is set to decide whether to suspend the judge’s ruling and maintain full access to the abortion drug, mifepristone, while the case is appealed. The case will be the court’s most significant consideration of abortion rights since its landmark ruling last June overturning the 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade, guaranteeing abortion rights nationally.

Continued; https://healthpolicy-watch.news/who-supports-abortion-rights/

18.04.2023

News

Food and Drug Administration

Sustainable Development Goals

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

World Health Organization

This doctor says bans won’t stop her from getting abortion pills to women in the U.S.

BY LAURA KINGSTAFF
APRIL 3, 2023

AMSTERDAM — It was nearly three decades ago, as a young medical trainee in West Africa, that Rebecca Gomperts witnessed scenes that would set in motion her life’s work. Gruesome hemorrhages, perforated wombs, bloodied young women gasping out their lives: all the aftermath of botched illegal abortions.

“The methods — oh, how invasive they were,” the 57-year-old Dutch activist-physician said, shaking her head at the memory of stricken women staggering or being carried into the hospital. “Sticks. Bleach.”

Continued: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-04-03/dutch-doctor-telemedicine-group-abortion-pill-struggle

Decriminalization of abortion in Benin: a solution to reduce female mortality and morbidity?

Kparon Baaru
March 28, 2023

Unsafe abortions are one of the causes of female mortality and morbidity worldwide. According to the WHO, estimates of the number of abortions in Africa stand at 6 million. Of this figure, only 3% are done in medicalized and safe conditions for women. Among the victims who eventually succumb or suffer over time from serious infections, cancer of the cervix or sterility, there are a large number of adolescent girls and young women. To remedy this, a few rare African countries are taking the resolution to legalize voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion). Among these, is now added Benin. Is the legalization of abortion the solution to reduce clandestine abortions and a step forward in access to sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) in Benin?

The WHO defines abortion as a simple health intervention that can be managed effectively by a wide range of health workers using drugs or by surgery. Abortion is a subject that we avoid talking about especially in the presence of adolescents and young people in Africa. This neglected point in the debates is an integral part of SRHR. Adolescents and young people do not have access to reliable information related to sexuality and reproduction as they should.

Continued: https://www.breakinglatest.news/world/decriminalization-of-abortion-in-benin-a-solution-to-reduce-female-mortality-and-morbidity-kparon-baaru/