Allow women to take abortion pill at home, says medical chief

WOMEN should be allowed to take abortion pills at home to avoid them miscarrying on the way back from the clinic, Britain’s leading maternity doctor has said.

Currently, women who ask for an early medical abortion (EMA) in the first nine weeks of pregnancy must take two drugs, one or two days apart. And, by law, both sets must be taken in front of a doctor or nurse.

But Prof Lesley Regan, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), said that allowing women to take abortion pills and then leave puts them at risk of suffering bleeding or complications on the way home. Instead, she is calling for women to be allowed to take the second pill at home.

Prof Regan, who is also head of obstetrics and gynaecology at St Mary’s Hospital in west London, told The Sunday Times: “If you were to come to me in the miscarriage clinic and I had to tell you your baby had died, I’d be saying: Here are the tablets, perhaps you want to go home. It is Wednesday, why don’t you do this on Friday, in the comfort of your own home and the weekend, and you can get over it?

“But if you come for a termination, I make you take them in front of me. So, possibly on the way home, you start becoming uncomfortable or start bleeding. You are certainly not going to have [the abortion in] the same composed, calm way.”

Scotland is already planning to change the law to allow women to take the second pill at home and Prof Regan has raised the issue with Prof Chris Whitty, chief scientific adviser to the Department of Health.

The RCOG has also pledged to provide the government with evidence and arguments demonstrating the importance of the change.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service is also calling for a change in the law. Ann Furedi, chief executive of BPAS said: “Medical bodies around the world agree that home use is safe and sensible. It is unacceptable for any woman to be made to risk miscarrying on her way home from a clinic.”

BPAS is also warning that if women are forced to take pills in front of a medical practitioner, they may resort to avoiding the process altogether, and instead, buying drugs online, which could place them at greater risk.

The Department of Health said it would be discussing the issue with the RCOG. “Around 180,000 women access abortions each year in England,” said a spokesman. “We will continue to engage with women and stakeholders like the RCOG on ways to make our safe and regulated services even better.”