As debate intensifies in the U.S. over abortion, a new survey finds nearly half of all women support alternatives to visiting a medical facility in order to obtain the abortion medicine to terminate pregnancies. And the findings suggest there is potential to expand access to abortion care, if regulators can be persuaded to loosen regulations governing access to the medicine, according to the researchers.
Currently, women in the U.S. must obtain mifepristone at a doctor’s office, clinic, or hospital under a risk management program required by the Food and Drug Administration. The restrictions were imposed when the drug was approved in 2000 and stipulate Mifeprex may not be sold in pharmacies and health care providers must complete a certification process.
However, of more than 7,000 women surveyed, 49 percent of those aged 18 to 49 supported one or more alternatives for obtaining the medicine, which is used for abortions up to 10 weeks of pregnancy, according to the survey results published in Contraception, a medical journal. The researchers noted that women are allowed to take the pills home after obtaining them at a medical facility.
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