Women now Prefer Abortion Pills than Surgery
American women are now increasingly choosing to cancel their pregnancies with medication than going through a surgical procedure, says a report. As abortion pills grow more popular, the rate of medical pregnancy cancellation now rivals the number of surgical terminations. This is majorly attributed to the FDA’s easing up on its regulations to make access to abortive drugs and services easier. With recent online boom and this amendment, more pharmacies are providing abortion pills online.
Medically induced pregnancy terminations were introduced to America in 2000, however surgical abortions have been more preferential in the country. Its usage has been more prevalent in European countries like France, Scotland and Finland since the 1980’s. In fact according to a research, 95% of terminations in Finland were by abortion pills in 2014, and 80% in Scotland.
Reasons for increase in preference for medical abortion
As per a report, there was an increase in percentage of women choosing to end their pregnancies medically. A 43% of women preferred to buy abortion pills than surgery an increase from 35% in 2010. As stated, the FDA relaxed its guidelines for abortion pills that not only made it accessible to more women, but changes were made in the pill’s label as well. Even if it was introduced more than a decade ago, pro-life activist’s opposition has restricted its growth.
A medically induced miscarriage is primarily done by Mifepristone and Misoprostol and has 96%-97% success rate without complications. Mifepristone blocks the progesterone hormones in continuing the pregnancy, while Misoprostol causes contractions in the womb. Taking the pills help women to eject the conception parts safely when they are within 10 weeks of gestation.
Price
Another reason for preferring pills may be due to the long pre-requisite requirements and high cost of surgical procedures. In countries where terminations are legal, pregnancy cancellation pills can be accessed easily compared to surgery. Additionally abortion pill cost are comparatively cheap than surgery.
Nullifying TRAP Laws
The Supreme Court ruled TRAP (Targeted regulation of Abortion providers) as unnecessary in June this year. These laws were deemed to be placing medically useless and expensive requirements on providers, which in turn had an unconstitutional and excessive burden on women seeking abortive procedures.
Medical experts all through the country have protested to uplift such non-essential laws which were primarily placed to create stigma and depict pregnancy cancellation as a dangerous procedure. This was done despite the mounting evidence that medically done abortions were safer than any other socially accepted procedures.
Why should it remain legal and easily accessible?
It has been proven time and time again that criminalizing pregnancy cancellation does not reduce the number of abortions. It only results in more women seeking illegal services. Additionally, the decision to control their body is a basic human right, which applies to women seeking abortive services.
Self induced abortions are painful and hazardous, due to this access to safe and legal abortive pills and services is a must for the well being of women’s health.