Breakthrough for abortion
Nurses, midwives in state to gain prescription powers
Queensland is set to become the first state in Australia to allow nurses and midwives to write prescriptions for the abortion pill, in a bid to help bridge the severe lack of termination services across the regions.
The medicines watchdog revealed it would remove arduous restrictions on doctors and pharmacists and allow nurses and midwives to prescribe, after a Senate inquiry into universal access to reproductive healthcare.
MS-2 Step – the only available medical abortion pill in Australia – can currently only be prescribed by doctors who have completed special training and are registered to prescribe it.
Pharmacists also need to be registered to dispense the drug.
The Chronicle understands that once the TGA lifts the restrictions the government will move to make legislative changes to give nurses and midwives the ability to prescribe.
A statement from Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said: “I look forward to the TGA making a decision that would allow more healthcare practitioners to prescribe and dispense MS-2 Step, especially throughout regional and rural areas.”
Therapeutic Goods Association chief medical adviser Robyn Langham told the recent inquiry the TGA would approve the changes in a matter of weeks.
Dr Langham said the evidence provided by drug manufacturer MS Health showed there were very low numbers of general practitioners registered to prescribe and low number of pharmacists registered to dispense.
“It was universally agreed that what was put in place 10 years ago was no longer relevant,” she said.
“It was really out of step with current international guidelines, and it certainly was not meeting the needs of the Australian community in what it did.”
Children by Choice CEO Daile Kelleher said while the Australian first was a huge win for Queensland women, particularly in the regions, it was not the only change needed to fix the state’s dire abortion access issues.
The Chronicle previously reported that women seeking a termination across the state were being turned away from major metropolitan hospitals, travelling hundreds or thousands of kilometres and being forced to plead with not for profits for financial assistance to access the time-sensitive health service.
“It is a bit of a game changer because that does mean there are less barriers,” she said.
“We’d love to see more sexual health clinics across Queensland to be prescribing things like early medical abortion that would certainly make a difference in the gap that exists.”