Australia: Wider access to Early Medical Abortion

The ‘abortion pill’ will become more widely available in Australia after a not-for-profit sexual health group was approved to use the drug in its clinics, News.com reports.

Fourteen doctors at nine Marie Stopes International (MSI) Centres in Victoria, NSW, the ACT, Queensland and Western Australia will offer the drug RU486, also known as mifepristone, as an alternative to surgical abortions.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration will allow the drug’s use of up to nine week’s gestation under relaxed importing and prescribing rules, Fairfax reports.

Many prescribers of RU486 work in hospitals under limited circumstances. Staff at Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital can prescribe the drug only if a patient proves a specific need for a non-surgical abortion, but staff at MSI can prescribe it if a woman chooses it.

Marie Stopes national clinical adviser Jill Michelson said she did not expect a resulting increase in the overall abortion rate. ‘Our main purpose is to provide more choices for women,’’ she said.

An independent ethics committee reviewed all the company’s protocols, brochures and doctors’ CVs before the TGA granted approval.

Abortion pill available to more women. News.com, 10 August 2009

Also read:

Why is it still a crime to have an abortion? Commentary by Sue Dunlevy on the situation in New South Wales. The Daily Telegraph (Australia), 7 August 2009