How Much Supervision is Necessary for Women Taking Mifepristone and Misoprostol for Early Medical Abortion?

Womens Health (Lond); 2008 Mar; 4(2):107-11; doi:10.2217/17455057.4.2.107

The advent of early pregnancy termination with mifepristone and misoprostol promised the availability of safe abortion services regardless of legal restrictions or women’s access to healthcare resources. Since the introduction of mifepristone in France and China nearly two decades ago, medical abortion increasingly has been incorporated into clinical practice, and in some jurisdictions has become the standard of care. However, the promise of the method is often compromised by overly medicalized practices and regulations – sometimes encoded in laws and high-level healthcare policies – that are barriers to greater acceptability, access and availability.