Health-care providers warn: Unauthorized abortion pills sellers targeting women in Canada

By Annie Burns-Pieper
April 10, 2026

NELSON, B.C. - Health-care providers in British Columbia and Ontario say websites are offering unauthorized and potentially dangerous abortion pills from India by mail and in person. The services are targeting newcomers, uninsured people, and those with low health-care literacy, they say.

While medical abortion is legal in Canada, abortion medication, like other pharmaceuticals, must be approved by Health Canada and prescribed by a doctor or nurse practitioner (or midwife in Quebec). The services, which are being offered through websites and WhatsApp, provide imported medication of unknown quality, without a prescription or medical supervision.

Continued: https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/health-care-providers-warn-unauthorized-abortion-pills-sellers-targeting-women-in-canada/

South Korea – Seven years after abortion ban struck down, medication still blocked as ministries can’t agree

06 Mar. 2026

The introduction of abortion medication in Korea remains delayed amid disagreements among government ministries, even seven years after the Constitutional Court ruled the country’s abortion ban unconstitutional. Disputes over legal authority in particular have stalled discussions on allowing the drugs, according to Rep. Nam In-soon of the ruling Democratic Party.

The court struck down Korea's abortion ban in 2019 and ordered lawmakers to revise related laws, but the government and National Assembly have yet to establish a legal framework governing abortion procedures and medication.

Continued: https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2026-03-06/national/socialAffairs/Seven-years-after-abortion-ban-struck-down-abortion-medication-still-blocked-as-ministries-cant-agree/2536559

06.03.2026

News

Amnesty International Korea

Women in Ghana can access safe abortions: why are so many still using unsafe methods?

March 5, 2026
D. Yaw Atiglo, Charlotte Abra Esime Ofori

Ghana’s abortion law is relatively liberal. Abortion is legally permitted in the first trimester when a pregnancy endangers the mother’s life or physical or mental health, or when it is due to rape or incest. Thus, medication abortion has become more widely available.

Medication abortion involves the use of mifepristone and misoprostol pills which stop pregnancy and enable the uterus to expel it naturally. When used correctly and with proper guidance it is an acceptable, effective and safe method.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/women-in-ghana-can-access-safe-abortions-why-are-so-many-still-using-unsafe-methods-274991

Australia – An important anniversary in the history of women’s reproductive healthcare

Michael Carrette, Caroline de Costa, Philip Goldstone, Mukesh Haikerwal
Issue 6 / 16 February 2026

February 2026 marks the twentieth anniversary of the overturning of the Harradine Amendment by the Federal Parliament in 2006. Thanks to the efforts of many people across the country, this parliamentary action opened the way for a cascade of reforms in abortion care for Australian women.

The 1996 Amendment to the 1989 Therapeutic Goods Act was a political measure initiated by Brian Harradine, independent senator for Tasmania, who held the balance of power in the Senate during the Howard government and who was a hostile opponent of abortion. At the time, mifepristone (better known then as RU486) had been used in Australia only for a small clinical trial by Monash professor David Healy. Harradine made a deal with then Prime Minister, John Howard — he would support Howard’s bill to privatise Telstra and in return Howard would bring in legislation forbidding the import, manufacture or use of mifepristone in Australia without the express permission of the Health Minister. The Amendment was passed and had the effect of completely blocking efforts to introduce mifepristone for medical abortion in Australia, despite increasing use of mifepristone in many overseas countries and its proven safety.

Continued: https://insightplus.mja.com.au/2026/6/an-important-anniversary-in-the-history-of-womens-reproductive-healthcare/

2025 Was a Year of Chaos for Reproductive Rights Under the Trump Administration

Project 2025 initiated a war on reproductive rights that could escalate into even higher gear in 2026.

By Lauren Rankin , Truthout
December 27, 2025

With a decidedly anti-choice Trump administration taking office at its start, 2025 was poised to be yet another brutal year for abortion rights. Advocates feared the imminent resurgence of the Comstock Act, an 1873 law that made it a criminal offense to share contraceptives, abortifacients, and information about either across state lines or through the mail.

As of now, the last month of this very difficult political year, that is yet to happen.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/2025-was-a-year-of-chaos-for-reproductive-rights-under-the-trump-administration/

New Book Outlines Medication Abortion’s Origins—From ‘Chance’ Discovery to Decades of Clinical Tests and Global Approval

“Just Pills” author Rebecca Kelliher also discusses how the U.S. stacks up against Latin America on abortion rights, and what we can learn from the region’s fight for reproductive justice.

Dec 16, 2025
Catesby Holmes

The abortion drug mifepristone has transformed abortion care in the U.S. since its approval by the Food and Drug Administration 25 years ago.

…Journalist Rebecca Kelliher’s recent book, Just Pills, traces the history of abortion medications, starting with misoprostol’s whispered origins among Brazilian women in the 1980s as a “pill that makes your period back” through decades of clinical trials and widespread use in almost 100 countries.

Rewire News Group spoke with Kelliher about abortion politics, the disinformation that swirls around reproductive rights, and inspiration from abroad.

Continued: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2025/12/16/mifepristone-just-pills-rebecca-kelliher-book/

The War on Mifepristone: How Junk Science and False Narratives Threaten US Abortion Access

October 2025
Kelly Baden, Joerg Dreweke, Rachel K. Jones, Guttmacher Institute

False information and faulty science regarding the safety of the drug mifepristone, which is used in the vast majority of medication abortions in the United States, is at the center of a narrative that may further reduce abortion access. Mifepristone, and medication abortion more broadly, is safe, effective and widely used in the United States and globally. Despite its demonstrated safety, relentless policy and legal attacks aim to restrict or even ban access to this method of abortion.

This analysis will explore and counter several pernicious aspects of such attacks. These include the misrepresentation of normal signs a medication abortion is working as intended—for example, cramping or bleeding—as serious medical complications; and the conflation of routine or precautionary care-seeking by medication abortion patients with emergency treatment for serious adverse events.

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/2025/10/war-mifepristone-how-junk-science-and-false-narratives-threaten-us-abortion-access

Despite ban removal, women’s access to abortion pills faces legal void in Korea

21 Oct. 2025

Six years after Korea’s Constitutional Court struck down the country’s abortion ban, women seeking to end a pregnancy still face a legal void. The government has yet to approve abortion pills, and thousands are turning to the internet, where unverified drugs circulate in an expanding underground market.

Authorities uncovered 2,641 cases of illegal online sales of abortion medication since 2021, when the abortion ban lost effect, according to new data from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety submitted to Rep. Nam In-soon of the Democratic Party on Tuesday.

Continued: https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2025-10-21/national/socialAffairs/Despite-ban-removal-womens-access-to-abortion-pills-faces-legal-void-in-Korea/2425241

21.10.2025

Ministry of Food and Drug Safety

Using telemedicine to improve access to medication abortion in Rwanda

August 14, 2025
UC Berkeley Public Health

In recent years, the African nation of Rwanda has expanded legal grounds for abortion. But the law requires that a doctor authorize the procedure, creating obstacles for women who live in areas with few physicians.

To determine whether a hybrid telemedicine/in-person appointment model could expand access to medication abortions, researchers from UC Berkeley School of Public Health’s Bixby Center for Population, Health, and Sustainability, working with local health care partners and the Rwandan Ministry of Health, launched a pilot program in the predominantly rural Musanze District in Northern Rwanda.

Continued: https://publichealth.berkeley.edu/articles/spotlight/research/telemedicine-in-rwanda

14.08.2025

Research

Bixby Center for Population Health and Sustainability

Dr. Ndola Prata

Karen Weidert

medication abortion

Rwandan Ministry of Health

telemedicine abortion

Medication abortions drove up number of US procedures after Roe’s repeal, study shows

Abortion pill provision rates were also more than three times higher in states that ban abortion compared with those that do not

Carter Sherman
Mon 11 Aug 2025

An abortion provider shipped almost 120,000 packs of abortion pills to US residents between July 2023 and August 2024 – nearly 100,000 of whom lived in states that outlaw the procedure or have laws on the books that ban the mailing of abortion pills, according to a new study published in the prestigious medical journal Jama on Monday.

To the shock of experts, the number of abortions performed in the US rose in the three years since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade and paved the way for more than a dozen states to ban virtually all abortions. Much of that rise has been driven by the use of abortion pills, or medication abortion, and providers’ ability to supply the pills through telehealth.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/11/medication-abortions-performed-study

11.08.2025