Expanding access to medical abortion: Perspectives of women and providers in developing countries
Editorial
The use of medications and herbs with presumed medicinal properties to induce abortion is documented throughout recorded history [1]. However, the advent of safe and effective regimens for medical abortion (MA), also sometimes termed medication abortion or nonsurgical abortion, is more recent. Clinical trials of mifepristone alone for early abortion began in 1982 and reported complete abortion rates of less than 80%. It was soon discovered that the rates could be improved to nearly 100% if a prostaglandin analogue was administered 24–48 hours after mifepristone...
Medical abortion is one of the most significant developments in the field of reproductive health, both in countries where abortion is permitted on broad grounds or on request and in others where it is highly restricted. Where abortion is permitted and MA has been approved, MA provides a safe, effective, and noninvasive alternative to surgical abortion and is highly acceptable to women whether it was induced by misoprostol only or by the combined regimen [5–7]...
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Full text of the editorial
IJGO Volume 118, Supplement 1, September 2012 -
Articles
IJGO Volume 118, Supplement 1, September 2012
Direct links to articles
- Hidden realities: What women do when they want to terminate an unwanted pregnancy in Bolivia
- Knowledge of medical abortion among Brazilian medical students
- Women's experiences of and perspectives on abortion at public facilities in Mexico City three years following decriminalization
- Improving care of women at risk of unsafe abortion: Implementing a risk-reduction model at the Uruguayan-Brazilian border
- Study of knowledge and attitudes on medical abortion among Chinese health providers
- Medical abortion: Understanding perspectives of rural and marginalized women from rural South India
- Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of certified providers of medical abortion: Evidence from Bihar and Maharashtra, India
- Adoption and continuation of contraception following medical or surgical abortion in Bihar and Jharkhand, India
- Factors associated with choice of medical or surgical abortion among women in Nepal
- Introducing medical abortion in Turkey: Perspectives of physicians
[1] Joffe C. Abortion and medicine: a sociopolitical history. In: Paul M, Lichtenberg S, Borgatta L, Grimes DA, Stubblefield PG, Mitchell D, et al, editors. Management of Unintended and Abnormal Pregnancy: Comprehensive Abortion Care. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell; 2009. p. 1–9.
[5] Winikoff B, Sivin I, Coyaji KJ, Cabezas E, Xiao B, Gu S, et al. Safety, efficacy, and acceptability of medical abortion in China, Cuba, and India: a comparative trial of mifepristone-misoprostol versus surgical abortion. Am J Obstet Gynecol 1997;176(2): 431–7.
[7] Blanchard K, Winikoff B, Ellerston C. Misoprostol used alone for the termination of early pregnancy: a review of evidence. Contraception 1999;59(4):209–17.