Introducing Medical Abortion within the Primary Health System: Comparison with Other Health Interventions and Commodities

Abstract

Over the years, a de-medicalisation strategy has been adopted for a range of public health interventions and commodities for the reduction of mortality, morbidity and population growth, including those for reproductive, neonatal and child health, communicable diseases, and trauma and emergency care, as a way of enhancing access to essential services. These experiences carry valuable lessons for de-medicalising and simplifying the provision of medical abortion. Like the combined oral pill and emergency contraception, which have become non-prescription drugs despite strident opposition, the abortion pill fundamentally alters the relationship between women and their health care providers. Measures for de-medicalising primary health services include adoption of simpler technology and service protocols, authorisation and training of less qualified providers, simplification or elimination of facility requirements, establishment of robust referral links to hospitals, increasing user control and self-medication, and simplifying arrangements for financing. By applying these measures, medical abortion can be widely provided as a primary health care service. To enable this, however, laws and policies must move beyond the surgical abortion paradigm, drugs must become reliably available at affordable cost, and women must have access to information that de-stigmatises abortion, enhances their options and aims to balance the power between them and their health care providers.