Abortions at home are safe - pilot study

[shugah]

Abortions at home are safe - pilot study

Thursday February 16, 2006
The Guardian

Women who are less than nine weeks pregnant can safely have medical abortions at home, according to the head of a government-backed pilot project.

Abortion services for the 20,000 women who seek a chemically induced abortion every year could be transformed should the Department of Health's official evaluation of the pilot confirm initial findings. But it is also likely to provoke controversy from anti-abortion campaigners who will claim that home abortions would make the procedure easier and therefore lead to more women having terminations.

~snip~

Ms Butler stressed that the results were preliminary and were now being officially evaluated. She also asked for her hospital not to be named for fear of reprisal attacks from pro-life campaigners. St Mary's hospital in London confirmed that it is undertaking the second trial.

Chemical abortions are available before the 12th week of pregnancy. Women who request it take one tablet of mifepristone at a hospital then return two days later to take four doses of misoprostol which causes a termination within hours. Usually women remain in hospital after taking the second pills until the abortion is complete. Under the trials they took both sets of pills within local community clinics to test the theory that it is safe to be outside hospital, and therefore at home.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,1710735,00.html

[Erika]

1. James Dobson, the AFA, and Pat Robertson

tells the W administration "No", don't even go there.

Let's keep women under the Texas reproduction restrictions "Bible between the legs". It works every time.

[shugah]

3. wave of the future

private, at home abortion. a door closes, a window opens. nothing about abortion is new - it has always happened and it always will.

[Bigmack]

21. Dull sex life...

I always wonder when I hear the dumbasses talk about "keep a bible between the knees".... or "aspirin works as a contraceptive - keep one between the knees" ... or the like.

These people must have sad sex lives! They must have strictly missionary sex.

Even at my advanced age, I can think of (mostly just think of) lots of positions where everybody's knees are together.

[GrumpyGreg]

2. Hope you all saw "Vera Drake"---That's what it used to be like !

[bleedingheart]

12. In this case the home abortion is a whole lot safer and under a Doctor's

care...

In the Vera Drake movie, a caustic solution was used to induce abortion and it was illegal so any woman who had to be seen by a doctor was at risk of going to jail along with the person who did the abortion.

[Scairp]

25. Not all women had to resort to that

Did you see the example in that movies of the girl who came from a nice family? She was raped by some guy she went out with, went to her own doctor, was seen and questioned by a psychiatrist, and then went to a hospital for a safe, legal abortion. That's the way it is if abortion isn't available for all women regardless of economics. The rich girls still get their little "problem" handled by the medical profession and the poor girls are stuck with kids they can't take care of.

[wicket]

13. it's on my Netflix list

Can't wait to see it!

[xchrom]

4. abortions at home --

this will spin the heads of the religious right into outer space -- i hope.

[fasttense]

5. Good news

but I doubt our religious crazies that own the government will allow it to go further than a test.

But a simple pill like this will certainly prevent the deaths from homemade abortions.

"Estimates of the number of illegal abortions in the 1950s and 1960s ranged from 200,000 to 1.2 million per year. One analysis, extrapolating from data from North Carolina, concluded that an estimated 829,000 illegal or self-induced abortions occurred in 1967."

So making abortions illegal doesn't stop abortions. Women still get them. Almost a million in 1967. Yet the death rate for the mothers is very high.

"One stark indication of the prevalence of illegal abortion was the death toll. In 1930, abortion was listed as the official cause of death for almost 2,700 women—nearly one-fifth (18%) of maternal deaths recorded in that year."

http://www.agi-usa.org/pubs/ib_5-03.html

[Bridget Burke]

9. This regimen is already available in the USA.

And "at home" use is not contra-indicated. A preliminary visit to the doctor is needed to determine the exact age of the fetus. And a follow-up visit is recommended, although it may not be necessary.

www.medicationabortion.com/mifepristone/index.html#How%20to%20use%20mifepristone/misoprostol

According to Planned Parenthood, most of the procedure does take place at home.

www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/files/portal/medicalinfo/abortion/pub-abortion-first-trimester.xml

The UK study just underlines the fact that using this method at home is just as safe as in a hospital.

[Igel]

16. Our religious crazies own

the British government?

Larouche redux.

[fasttense]

19. Oops, sorry, I thought it was in the US. Never mind.

:shrug:

[WePurrsevere]

6. Hmm...This has promise. Even if the anti-choice anti-privacy idiots manage

to make it illegal again it will probably be easily bought on the black market and I'll bet there will be a whole lot of very angry pro-choice pro-privacy women and men banding together to make darn sure they can. It would make "prohibition" and the current "war on drugs" BS look like a Sunday morning stroll in the park. :evilgrin:

I have often thought that a part of the reason the RW nutcases want to make abortion illegal and have women revert back to the bad old days of horribly unsafe "back alley" abortions where women die is because they actually WANT the women to die out of some perverse sort of sick (& very UN-Christian) "justice". :grr: This type of safer at home abortion would just suck all the joy out of it for those sick whackos.

Meanwhile we must NOT let our guard down.. we MUST continue the fight to keep abortion LEGAL and accessable to ALL women who need them.

~Purr

[tledford]

10. I think you're on the right track...

...but just need to carry it a bit farther.

Wealthy, privileged women, if abortion were again illegal, could do ten years from now what they did 40 years ago when they wanted an abortion -- fly to Switzerland or Japan.

The women who *can't afford* to do that will do what *they* did 40 years ago -- "back alley" abortions, frequently leading to complications and sometimes fatal or permanently damaging.

Who are these latter women? Poor and middle-class women. What economic classes are the Republicans trying to exterminate? The poor and middle-class.

Regards...

[WePurrsevere]

14. There may be something to what you say. I truly believe there is a war on

the poor and middle class already being waged by the elitist/fascists who call themselves "Republicans".

If this drug is truly all it's trumped up to be even illegal abortions would no longer be as great a risk to a woman thereby throwing a rather large bolt into their twisted plans.

BTW - welcome to DU B-)

[coffeenap]

7. (pingu!)

[shugah]

8. noop noop!

;-)

[ingac70]

11. 12 weeks?

Planned Parenthood won't give you R-486 if you are past 7 weeks.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. I'm not sure why it talks about 12 weeks

because it first says "less than nine weeks pregnant", and typical information about abortion methods in the UK also gives 9 weeks as the point for switching from chemical to vacuum aspiration abortion, eg http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/en.aspx?articleId=1§ionId=5547

[Mithras61]

15. Just curious... Are there other uses of...

mifepristone and misoprostol? I ask because the obvious tack for the anti-abortionists to use seems to me to be banning these drugs, but if they have other legitimate uses, it will be more difficult to do...

[shugah]

18. specifically for abortion

as far as i can tell.

[davsand]

20. Research into all RU486's medical uses is out there--and being ignored.

This is from the Feminist Majority Foundation:

"The Medical Uses of Mifepristone

In addition to its use in terminating unwanted pregnancies, MIFEPRISTONE (formerly known as RU-486) also may be effective in treating a range of serious diseases and medical conditions, many of which particularly affect women. Yet U.S. clinical trials for most of these uses have come to a standstill due to anti-abortion politics..."

http://www.feminist.org/action/action120f.htm


If you read it you will get pissed off--I warn you now.


Laura

[Xenotime]

22. This would save me money...

My girlfriend and I execise our constitutional right to choose about 3 times a year.

[Bridget Burke]

24. How big of you to pay!

Are you sure they were all yours?

[NickB79]

26. Some condoms would save you money!!

I'm 100% pro-choice, but even I can't understand how you justify an abortion 3 times in ONE YEAR. With the wide availability of condoms, birth control pills, patches, rings, the Depo shot, diaphram, the morning-after pill, etc, there is no reason why you and your girlfriend should be having 3 abortions per year! What you two are doing is irresponsible and only gives the anti-choicers more ammunition.

Safe, legal and rare is what abortions should be, by pill or in the doctor's office.

[superconnected]

27. For many women, abortion is their birth control.

I have one friend who had 6 abortions and another 11.

I've never had one because I always insisted on contraceptives. I've totally pro choice and I'll show up for any march to keep abortion legal... but after that, reading about the procedure makes me sick.

Eewww. Glad I've never went through it. Too bad they can't come up with a birth control method that works and doesn't fuck womens bodies up at the same time.I've seen so many now that got pulled off the market and I have two friends now that had hysterectomys because of the pill, one that had cysts from - I think that one was deprovera and that was also the one she went through hell finding a doctor to remove, and hers wouldn't even though her's inserted it. Guess it's some surgery to take it out. Another friend had some 3 or 5 year shot which got pulled from the market. And I think there was one that started with N something that was killing women that got pulled around the same time.

[NickB79]

28. A condom, if used properly, is 90%+ effective

If it breaks, get the morning after pill. If that fails, then by all means have an abortion if you desire. But anyone who says they have multiple abortions because they don't have any other options for birth control is wrong. Hell, I could understand that logic if the person lived in Soviet Russia, but here in the US? Condoms are everywhere, and there are plenty of spermicidal inserts that, if used with a condom, reduce your chances of getting pregnant even further even if the condom breaks or comes off. If the guy doesn't want to use a condom, tell him no and stop it right there.

What I wish they would finally get released is the male birth control pill they've been talking about for years now. If I could take control of my fertility with a single pill a day that doesn't do any long-term damage to my body, I would be the first in line.

[superconnected]

32. I agree about condoms should have been used.

I'm saying what these women did though.

I remember the N was for Norplant. I think it was actually the norplant my friend went through hell getting removed when deprovera was also getting recalled.

[BlueIris]

31. It's sad how info about the grotesque risks is suppressed

isn't it? Far too easy for too many misogynist men and doctors to say, "oh, come on, it's no big deal." It's disgusting that it's been that way for so long and that women keep. putting. up. with. it. Hormonal contraceptives did serious damage to my health and before that happened, were hideously difficult for me to use. I won't go near another man or physician who is still ignorant about or trying to pollyanna the risks, either. There's no excuse for that attitude, except misogynist, Patriarchy-fellating ignorance and I personally won't take that shit anymore. Fellas? They're called vasectomies. Look into it. The hormones you're asking use to go through hell to get and use? Are killing us.

I'm so happy to see someone else unashamed to post about this in a thread anywhere on the web, especially on this site. At least now I don't feel quite so alone.

[IronLionZion]

30. You're kidding right?

right?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

33. Yeah, right.

And we atheists sacrifice Christian babies in Satanic rituals.

Uh huh.

[Blue-Jay]

34. What the hell are you talking about?

[llmart]

23. I seem to recall that the original.......

"Our Bodies, Ourselves" book talked about women learning to do abortions, so that they could do them on others in the privacy of their homes. I read this a long, long time ago or maybe it was some other book (I read too much).

[THUNDER HANDS]

29. is there anything ethically wrong with making abortions easier?

I don't think so.