At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, while in Italy, the opportunity to resort tomedical abortion in a day hospital (later introduced by Minister Speranza in 2020), in England and Wales the possibility of pharmacological IVG directly at homewith pills mailed. However, this was only a temporary measure and the government announced its intention to lift it in August 2022. As numerous feminist and choice advocates have pointed out, this would no doubt be a step backwards given that WHO says it is safe to take abortion pills. Now word has come that England and Wales will keep the service running and can be interrupted from home.
Medical abortion is a safe and effective procedure in percentage from 92 to 98% of cases. This happens in two stages: in the first, you take the drug (mifepristone, known as Ru486), which terminates a pregnancy. At this point, we move on to the second remedy (misoprostol), which contributes to the expulsion of the product of conception through prostaglandin-stimulated uterine contractions. Currently in England and Wales, this process can continue from home, with remote medical care and essential items sent by post.. Wales decided to make the program permanent and the ministers agreed to do the same in England. The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed on Tuesday that new legislation will allow women to access early medical abortion pills by phone or online prenatal counseling for up to nine weeks and six days.
“The well-being and safety of women seeking abortion services is critical,” Health Secretary Maggie Trope said. “Through these measures, they will have more choice in how and where to access abortion services, as well as reliable data collection to ensure their continued safety.”. The Department of Health and Human Services has essentially stated that in order to effectively monitor the impact and use of early medical abortion at home, physicians will need to include data on the location of the abortion and the location of the consultation. indicating whether the consultation was completely remote. In fact, telemedicine abortion has been used for some time in rural areas of the United States where there are no abortion clinics or there are too few staff, and Planned Parenthood has been offering the service since 2008. Also in Italy, with a very high percentage of doctors objecting, putting 194 people at risk, telemedicine could represent a new frontier for reproductive rights: a phone call and pills by mail would be enough, what is still lacking is the will on the part of the government to solve this problem . .
Source: Elle