Medical abortion pills and the Internet www.womenonweb.org Kinga Jelinska, ICMA, Lisbon 2010

www.womenonweb.org 2

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1 Mifepristone 6 Misoprostols Sarah: “i was very happy that medicine worked. if not, i could face a big problem searching other ways”

Not enough information on the Internet Sarah, a girl from UAE: “I’m single. in most moslem countries, if a single girl get pregnant, it's a big shame for her and her family. I desperately looked for the information on abortion on the internet.”

5000 help emails replied per month Women from more than 115 countries were helped Around 1 500 women publically shared their stories to support other women in need

Acceptability (group of 2589 women) 7

2007-2008 Number of women 4329 Follow-up 2589 (59.8%) Complete abortion 1946 (75.2%) VA/curettage 293 (11.6%) Ongoing pregnancy 22 (0.8%) Antibiotics 73 (2.8%) Did not do the abortion 240 (9.3%)

Self-administration of abortion pills A safe option for TOP in countries with no access Independence from providers and legal status of abortion (you can do an early abortion yourself & doctors cannot see the difference between medical abortion and spontaneous miscarriage)

The medical abortion becomes over-medicalized and women loose a live-saving option Medical establishment, media, governments create an illusion that self-administration of pills is a BAD option for women Women are capable of using the medical abortion pills by themselves. They just need more information and access.