Public health research, data analysis, and commentary on the global provision of sexual and reproductive health and rights; telemedicine and self-managed medical abortion; ethics, policy and payment.
In its SmPC (summaries of product characteristics), Ranbaxy states that there is a non-negligible risk of medical abortion treatment failure, as follows: The non-negligible risk of failure, which occurs in 4.5 to 7.8% of the cases, makes the follow-up visit mandatory in order to check that abortion is complete. The patient should be informed that... Continue Reading →
Marie Stopes Australia (MSA) says that more than 5% of the medical abortions it provides, fail to complete. Meaning that 1-in-20 women will have fragments of the baby and/or placenta remaining in their womb after taking both sets of the tablets, mifepristone and misoprostol. These women will need to seek further treatment to prevent ongoing... Continue Reading →
On 25 May 2021, Public Health Scotland (PHS) released its official abortion statistics for the year ending December 2020. You may have already read that in 2020 there were a total of 13,815 abortions, the highest annual total since 2008, and that 36% of these were repeat abortions, which continues an increasing trend year-on-year. In this short... Continue Reading →
Caroline Gazet, UK Clinical Director for MSI Reproductive Choices, says that she is both saddened and angered by the term ‘DIY abortion’. This made me smile. It is ironic for a senior member of the Marie Stopes team to complain about others using such terminology to describe abortion at-home when they themselves are fixated on... Continue Reading →
Each month, 10,700 women self-manage their medical abortions at home, 350 of these will experience failed, incomplete abortions. At least 17 women will need hospital treatment for complications, every month, based on historic data of 1.6 complications per 1,000 abortions.
DHSC data shows an average 7,600 telemedicine abortions at home per month. A further 3,100 women self-administer misoprostol at home after taking mifepristone at an abortion clinic. Each month, 10,700 women self-manage their pregnancy expulsions at home.
This is my response to an article in the New Statesman on December 15th, 2020. My main concern is the assertion that abortion has become safer since the introduction of telemedicine in April. The article states that there has been just one complication in more than 23,000 abortions at home, and that is clearly wrong,... Continue Reading →
Abortion supporters go to great lengths to assure women that at early gestations, their ‘pregnancy’ is nothing more than a clump of cells, that it is not yet a baby. This article shows how a baby develops in utero, from the moment of conception. On 30 March 2020, Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for... Continue Reading →
Based on official data, it's likely that there have been 2,800 failed, incomplete abortions self-administered by women at home since the start of April; 350 incomplete every month. Official government data issued by the Department of Health and Social Care show that during April-June there was a monthly average of 17,800 abortions across England and... Continue Reading →
When your global strategy is to promote and enable self-managed medical abortion, even in places in which the national laws prohibit this, then you need catchy slogans to justify your actions to your supporter base. How about these two: Harm reduction.Conscientious provision. In most countries, even in those in which the abortion law is relatively... Continue Reading →
Percuity 