Family Planning Initiative To Make Abortion Safer

MEDIA RELEASE
11 March 2009
Abortion Law Reform Association of NZ

Family Planning Initiative Will Make Abortion Safer

Offering women early medical abortions at Family Planning clinics will help cut waiting times, making abortions safer for New Zealand women, Dr. Margaret Sparrow, the National President of Alranz, said today.

Dr. Sparrow was responding to the announcement by Family Planning that they will be applying for a licence to provide early medical abortion using the drug Mifegyne (mifepristone), formerly known as RU486. Dr. Sparrow was one of a group of doctors who first introduced Mifegyne into New Zealand, and it was approved for use here in 2001.

“More than 15 percent of New Zealand women have trouble accessing services for early termination of pregnancy, a problem that is worse the farther a woman lives from a main centre,” Dr. Sparrow said.

Family Planning’s initiative of providing an early termination service offers one way of overcoming those disparities, and Alranz is hopeful the Ministry of Health and District Health Boards will support its expansion, she said.

“If Family Planning can take this step, there are surely opportunities for other primary care providers such as student health services, sexual health services – even GP surgeries.”

In Britain, Dr. Sparrow said, a GP surgery in Wolverhampton offers patients the option of early medical abortion through a service provided by British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) under contract to the NHS. A second such service has also been approved.

Dr. Sparrow said that compared to other developed countries, New Zealand sees too many abortions carried out at a later stage than necessary. “Only 8% of abortions here are done at a gestational age less than eight weeks,” she said. “In the Netherlands over 75% are done at this early stage.” Easing access will improve those numbers for New Zealand women.

Given the recent debate about abortion and mental health, Dr. Sparrow said she hoped those concerned about women’s well-being would join Alranz in welcoming the Family Planning initiative. “By any measure, the earlier an abortion is carried out, the better it is for the woman concerned,” she said.

ENDS

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