Expanding Abortion Options for Women, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

In Uzbekistan, where abortion is a common means of controlling fertility, it is critical to offer women of reproductive age a convenient and accessible alternative to surgical abortion. Gynuity held a training on medical abortion for 23 medical providers from Tashkent maternity houses and hospitals. Ten clinicians from a national hospital, municipal hospital and the private sector will be participating in a study on medical abortion. The study will recruit 300 consenting women and seeks to evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of mifepristone medical abortion of 200mg mifepristone and 400mcg sublingual misoprostol up to 63 days LMP. It is anticipated the study will encourage the Ministry of Health of Uzbekistan to establish national guidelines on medical abortion and improve access to the procedure.