Poor access to abortion drugs

Poor access to abortion drugs

Context:

Findings of the study carried out by the Foundation for Reproductive Health Services India (FRHSI) indicated a severe shortage of medical abortion (MA) drugs in five out of the six states surveyed.

Medical Abortion Drugs

Abortion pills are different from emergency contraceptive pills.
Abortion pills or MA drugs are abortafacients which terminate a pregnancy by expelling an embryo or foetus.
Abortion pills are approved for use only up to nine weeks, whereas an ultrasound can detect a foetus only at around 13-14 weeks.

Study

The study found an overwhelming shortage of abortion pills or medical abortion drugs.
The study conducted among 1,500 chemists in six States found abysmal stocking in Madhya Pradesh (6.5%), Punjab (1%), Tamil Nadu (2%), Haryana (2%) and Delhi (34%).
The only State that seemed to be better was Assam (69.6%).

Reasons for shortage:

Over-regulation of drugs to curb gender-biased sex selection such as through government programmes like ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ has hindered access to safe, legal and cost-effective abortion.
Medical abortion drugs are over-regulated as compared to other prescription drugs.
Regulatory hurdles are due to a misunderstanding that easy availability of medical abortion drugs will be misused for sex selection.
State-wise regulatory and legal barriers are the key reasons why 79% of the chemists surveyed refrained from stocking these drugs.

Issues:

The regulatory crackdown has resulted in abortion services becoming inaccessible, especially those during the second trimester.
The shortage forces many women to seek a surgical abortion from a facility, reducing her choice.
It will also reduce access to safe abortion and force them to seek services from unsafe providers.
There are only 16,296 approved abortion facilities in the private sector in the country.
Whereas, MA drugs can be provided by an obstetrician or a gynaecologist, who are estimated to number about 60,000-70,000.
The cost of first trimester surgical abortion is much higher than the cost of abortion pills plus the consultation fee.

Way forward

Abortions are allowed under the Medical Termination Act.
MA drugs are also cost-effective.

Source: TH

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