PRESS RELEASE: INTERNATIONAL SAFE ABORTION DAY: FROM CRISIS TO OPPORTUNITY

28th September 2020

Today is International Safe Abortion Day and this year’s theme – during the global pandemic – is #IManageMyAbortion

Unsafe abortion is a preventable pandemic, today abortion Rights joins the calls for the global health community to strengthen access to contraception and safe abortion care everywhere, and especially in poor and crisis settings, by engaging with women to develop self-managed models of care. 

THE PANDEMIC IS CHANGING HOW WE ACCESS REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE

The pandemic has highlighted the failures of our antiquated abortion laws and called to attention to the often tenuous access to sexual health care, products, and services. 

Before the Covid-19, women and girls living in low-income countries and remote areas suffered from a lack of reproductive health services and have even less access under lockdown.  The pandemic is changing how women get reproductive health care.
 

WHAT IS SELF-MANAGED ABORTION? 

As the access to in-person abortion clinics dwindled during the COVID-19 pandemic, providers have seen increased demand and awareness of another method of abortion care: telemedicine. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines Self‐managed medical abortion as the act of a woman taking mifepristone, or misoprostol, or both, (i.e. inserting the pill(s) in her mouth or vagina), on her own, without the supervision of a healthcare provider, during at least one stage of the drug regimen. 

HOW SAFE IS MANAGING YOUR OWN ABORTION?

The World Health Organization (WHO) Model List of Essential Medicines includes the combination regimen of mifepristone‐misoprostol for medical abortion. 

Women report finding Self-Managed Abortion with approved Medication Safe, effective and convenient. 

FROM CRISIS TO OPPORTUNITY

Is the current crisis enough to make society at large realise that we need more accessible health care interventions, especially with regards to abortion care?

As we slowly make our way towards the ‘new normal’, it is imperative that we take these lessons learned and use them as an opportunity to ensure that agency and access are front and centre in supporting all women in the choices they make on their health and well-being journeys.

ENDS

Notes to Desk:

• Media contact for comment and interviews:  Kerry Abel, National Chair, Abortion Rights (07979 535242) 
• Abortion Rights is the UK pro-choice campaign, working to defend and extend abortion rights and provide a pro-choice voice to the media.
• One in three women will have an abortion by the time she is 45.
• 95% of women don’t regret their abortions.
• In the UK, consistently three-quarters of people support a woman’s right to choose.
• Each year between 4.7% – 13.2% of maternal deaths can be attributed to unsafe abortion (WHO)
• Around 7 million women are admitted to hospitals every year in developing countries, as a result of unsafe abortion (WHO)
• The annual cost of treating major complications from unsafe abortion is estimated at USD 553 million (WHO)
• The World Health Organization (WHO) Model List of Essential Medicines includes the combination regimen of mifepristone‐misoprostol for medical abortion. 
• Please visit our website www.abortionrights.org.uk and follow us on Twitter @Abortion_Rights
• Watch our video for International Safe Abortion Day here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN_AXRnNxSk