Bombarded with a gambit of DIY television, people in the UK may have a utopian image of what doing something yourself entails. The UK’s “largest single abortion provider”, bpas, wants to extend this DIY spirit into the medical field. For most medical abortions, a woman is given mifepristone (RU-486) in a clinic, then returns to the clinic in a day or so to be given a second drug, misoprostol. The bpas doesn’t want women returning to the clinic for that second visit.
British abortion provider BPAS has launched a legal challenge to a United Kingdom abortion statute requiring that medication abortion drugs are prescribed and administered in a clinic, the London Telegraph reports. The legal challenge seeks to change the interpretation of the law by amending the requirement that the drugs be “prescribed and administered in the clinic” to state that they can be “prescribed and issued” in a clinic.
At issue is the administration of the second drug in the two-drug medication abortion regimen[…]
Doctors have said it is unnecessary for women to return to the clinic for the second drug, as research shows it is safe and effective for women to take the medication on their own (Smith, London Telegraph, 1/13). BPAS and other abortion-rights advocates argue that the U.K.’s 40-year-old Abortion Act must be updated to recognize the latest medical science. Most countries, including the U.S., allow women to take the second pill at home, which many women find more private and convenient.
According to BPAS CEO Ann Furedi, the group provides 17,500 medication abortions annually. Furedi added that many women express concern about bleeding on the trip home from the clinic after receiving the second drug. BPAS has been trying to persuade the health department to change the requirements for 10 years (Boseley, London Guardian, 1/13).
Furedi said abortion services “should be shaped by best clinical practice,” adding, “It is wrong to compromise women’s care through unnecessary restrictions imposed by officials who fear criticism from those who oppose abortion in principle.”
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Brigitte adds: Not to be overly cynical or anything (more than usual, I mean), but I get way more professional attention than that from my dentist. What is it about “Take this pill, go away, bleed your baby out by yourself and don’t bother us with possible complications” that women find empowering?
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SUZANNE says
You can pretend you’re having a miscarriage. That’s the “empowerment”.