www.womenonweb.org

Medical abortion pills and the Internet

Kinga Jelinska, ICMA, Lisbon 2010

www.womenonweb.org

1 Mifepristone6 Misoprostols

Sarah: “i was very happy that medicine worked.if not, i could face a big problem searching other ways”

Sarah, a girl from UAE: “I’m single. in most

moslem countries, if a single girl get pregnant, it's

a big shame for her and her family.

I desperately looked for the information on

abortion on the internet.”

Not enough information on the Internet

•5000 help emails replied per month

• Women from more than 115 countries were helped

• Around 1 500 women publically shared their stories to support other women in need

Acceptability (group of 2589 women)

2007-2008

Number of women 4329

Follow-up 2589 (59.8%)

Complete abortion 1946 (75.2%)

VA/curettage 293 (11.6%)

Ongoing pregnancy 22 (0.8%)

Antibiotics 73 (2.8%)

Did not do the abortion 240 (9.3%)

Self-administration of abortion pills

A safe option for TOP in countries with no access

Independence from providers and legal status of abortion (you can do an early abortion yourself & doctors cannot see the difference between medical abortion and spontaneous miscarriage)

The medical abortion becomes over-medicalized and women loose a live-saving option

Medical establishment, media, governments create an illusion that self-administration of pills is a BAD option for women

Women are capable of using the medical abortion pills by themselves. They just need more information and access.