Telemedicine Abortions Are Safe — So Why Are They Still So Hard To Get?

ELIZABETH GULINOLAST
OCTOBER 20, 2020

Katie realized she was pregnant during the first week of April 2020. She decided pretty quickly that she wanted to terminate the pregnancy. She already had two kids, and she’d just been diagnosed with high blood pressure. The condition was still uncontrolled, which made her pregnancy high-risk. But it was just weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. She was in full lockdown, and she wasn’t sure if she could get an abortion.

"I was Googling abortions," she tells Refinery29. "My biggest thing was not wanting to actually go to a place." Besides being afraid of catching the virus, the nearest clinic to Katie was six hours away from her home in New Mexico, and she wasn’t sure how she’d find the time to get there.

Continued: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/10/10015435/medical-abortion-pill-telabortion-access

5 days later pill also to minors without prescription

For the Medicines Agency it is a "turning point for the physical and psychological health protection of adolescents"

October 11, 2020

It will no longer be necessary to have a medical prescription to dispense ulipistral acetate (EllaOne), the drug used for emergency contraception up to five days after intercourse, even to minors.

This was established by the Italian Medicines Agency Aifa with Resolution no. 998 of last 8 October.

Continued: https://www.unionesarda.it/en/articolo/news/italia/2020/10/10/pillola-dei-5-giorni-dopo-anche-alle-minorenni-senza-ricetta-137-1069260.html

11.10.2020

emergency contraception

Italian Medicine Agency Aifa

Bhutan – Demand for abortion pills— a legal dilemma

October 10, 2020

The news of “demand for abortion pills rise in Thimphu” in Kuensel this week deserves our attention. The horrifying stories of abandonment of human fetuses and informal reports of unsafe abortions taking place across the border are sadly not uncommon in Bhutan. The issue of abortion is sensitive and controversial because the very nature of abortion is emotional, often against one’s social values and spiritual beliefs. It is also of moral and ethical dilemma among physicians.

Section 146 of the Penal Code of Bhutan (PCB), 2004, criminalizes abortion except when the mother’s life is in danger or of unsound mental condition or when pregnancy is a result of rape or incest. This provision is discriminatory itself as abortion is a crime only if certain criteria are not met violating the rights of both the mother and fetus.

Continued : https://kuenselonline.com/demand-for-abortion-pills-a-legal-dilemma/

Supreme Court denies request to lift injunction on FDA abortion pill rule

OCT. 8, 2020
By Daniel Uria

Oct. 8 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to lift a nationwide injunction preventing the Trump administration from regulating a pill commonly used for medication abortions.

In its first action on reproductive rights since the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the shorthanded court rejected the bid to remove the emergency stay against restoring regulations that require patients to see a medical provider before receiving Mifeprex.

Continued: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/10/08/Supreme-Court-denies-request-to-lift-injunction-on-FDA-abortion-pill-rule/9871602209120/

08.10.2020

Featured

News

abortion pills

abortion pills at home

Food and Drug Administration

in-person requirement

Judge Theodore Chuang

India – Why your nearby chemist doesn’t have abortion pills, and why he should stock them

A new study throws light on the availability
of prescription-based medical abortion drugs with chemists as a way to prevent
early abortion care costs among other benefits for women exercising their
choice of terminating pregnancy

Written by Jayashree Narayanan
Published: August 19, 2020

Marking 49 years of the inception of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP)
Act in 1971, a new study out on August 10, 2020 evaluated the availability of
Medical Abortion (MA) drugs in six Indian states to understand the awareness
levels and perceptions of the chemists stocking and selling MA pills.

Despite the passage of the MTP (Amendment) Bill in March 2020 that extended the
upper limit for permitting abortion to 24 weeks from 20 weeks, the
non-availability of MA drugs, which are approved for use up to nine weeks of
pregnancy in India, is seen to be “threatening” to women’s access to safe
abortion and proper reproductive healthcare.

Continued: https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/health/medical-abortion-pills-mtp-act-chemist-study-6552205/

India – Survey shows acute shortage of medical abortion pills in many states

The non-stocking of medical abortion drugs seems to be linked to overregulation by drug control authorities, said authorities.

Published: 10th August 2020
By Sumi Sukanya Dutta, Express News Service

NEW DELHI: A survey to assess the availability of the medical abortion pills in six states has shown its acute shortage in most of the states, triggering concerns of a sharp rise in unwanted pregnancies in the coming months.

The study by the Foundation for Reproductive Health Services India (FRSHI) involving 1500 chemists found that there was an overwhelming shortage of the drugs in five out of the six states surveyed with abysmal stocking in Madhya Pradesh (6.5%), Punjab (1.0%), Tamil Nadu (2.0%), Haryana (2.0%), and Delhi (34.0%).

Continued: https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2020/aug/10/survey-shows-acute-shortage-of-medical-abortion-pills-in-many-states-2181582.html

USA – Telemedicine has become the norm for most medical specialties — except abortion services

Federal restrictions are limiting access to telemedicine abortion care. That needs to change

Julie Burkhart
August 9, 2020

The ongoing pandemic has led to huge shifts in how we live and work, and health care is no exception. In the past few months, telehealth visits have surged more than 50 percent, enabling patients to access much of the health care they need without taking the added risk of leaving their homes.

But for people seeking reproductive health services, longstanding state and federal restrictions continue to needlessly limit their access to telemedicine abortion care.

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2020/08/09/telemedicine-has-become-the-norm-for-most-medical-specialties--except-abortion-services/

Australia – Unique SA legal requirement adds hurdles for country women accessing abortions

By Evelyn Leckie and Georgia Roberts
Aug 8, 2020

Regional doctors in remote South Australia are joining lobbyists in Adelaide calling for abortion law reform to be pushed through Parliament urgently, saying the current laws are placing barriers to termination access, particularly for regional women.

Port Lincoln's Dr Anna Kearney is one of two GP registrars on the Eyre Peninsula who is qualified to prescribe the early medication 'abortion pill' RU486.

Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-08/law-adds-hurdles-for-sa-women-accessing-abortions/12536186

Sri Lanka’s backstreet abortions: hundreds of women take daily risks with illegal terminations

Sri Lanka’s abortion laws are among the world's most restrictive, yet hundreds of women risk their lives every day with illegal terminations

By Meghan Davidson Ladly

5 August 2020

In an unassuming house in the Sri Lankan city of Negombo, Achala is bravely
breaking a taboo. With poise and calm the 36-year-old is talking about her
abortion, three years previously. While she is hardly alone in terminating a
pregnancy, few Sri Lankan women are willing to openly discuss their experiences
in a country where the issue remains legally and culturally off limits.

Sri Lanka’s abortion laws are among the most restrictive in the world and
attempts at legal reform are held up in parliament. Yet every day hundreds of
women are thought to obtain illegal abortions, risking their lives and
long-term health.

Continued: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/sri-lankas-backstreet-abortions-hundreds-women-take-daily-risks/

If You Think Abortion’s Bad, Try Childbirth, Jen Gunter Tells U.S. Politician

Many of the side effects of abortion cited by its opponents are actually more true of labour and childbirth.

By Maija Kappler
07/22/2020

Note to the many people out there spreading misinformation about reproductive rights: you do not want to get into a Twitter fight with Dr. Jen Gunter.

On Wednesday, Republican congresswoman Debbie Lesko took to Twitter to discourage the use of Mifegymiso, the two-pill combo that terminates a pregnancy.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/jen-gunter-abortion-us-politician_ca_5f173056c5b615860bb88e22

22.07.2020