Let us take misoprostol at home too

Women in Scotland are already able to take misoprostol at home.

Every day, women are forced to travel immediately after taking abortion pills, meaning many experience symptoms while they are still on public transport or on their way home.

This is because the 1967 Abortion Act states that women must be in a surgery or clinic to have an abortion – but this Act was based on the assumption that abortions meant a surgical procedure.

And this is no longer the case.

In a medical abortion, a woman takes two pills, mifepristone and misoprostol, to end a pregnancy before 12 weeks are up. These are administered in separate appointments. Women have to take misoprostol in a registered clinic or hospital as it is illegal to take medication to end a pregnancy at home in the UK.

This means that a woman who is having a miscarriage is permitted to take the pill in her own home, but a woman seeking an abortion is not given the same choice.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas) said the proportion of women ending a pregnancy using a medical procedure such as an oral pill, rather than a surgical abortion, more than doubled over the 10 years from 30 per cent in 2006 to 62 per cent in 2016.

But this could change overnight. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Jeremy Hunt, and Welsh Assembly Member Vaughan Gething, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services, could follow Scotland’s lead and introduce home use in England and Wales.

A woman who did begin to miscarry on her way home after taking an abortion pill in hospital has written an open letter to Hunt and Gething, calling for women to be allowed to take abortion medication at home:

Dear Jeremy and Vaughan,

One year ago I took Misoprostol to terminate a pregnancy.

By law I had to take the pill at the hospital. I had no idea how quickly it would take effect. I was lucky I had enough money for a taxi – it was a 15 minute drive, but in those 15 minutes I turned pale green and could feel the process starting.

I was counting down the seconds until I arrived home. I collapsed almost as soon as I got inside and started vomiting and miscarrying on the bathroom floor.

I can’t imagine what it would have been like if we had been stuck in traffic for just two minutes longer. Or if, like many women, I couldn’t afford to take a taxi.

I should never have had to make this journey. I should have been at home, next to my bed and a bathroom, where my family and friends could support me.

Misoprostol is regularly prescribed for safe home use when women are experiencing miscarriages, but I had to risk miscarrying in public because of outdated laws from the 1960s.

Allowing home use of Misoprostol for abortions would save the NHS money.

It would relieve some of the strain on overstretched services.

It would help women who live in poverty or are experiencing domestic violence to access abortions safely and it would save thousands of women like me from pain and distress.

You personally have the power to change this. Women in Scotland are already able to take misoprostol at home.

Please, listen to my experience, and that of so many women, and take this simple action so that other women across England and Wales do not face the same ordeal.

Yours sincerely,

Claudia

To add your name to Claudia’s letter, click here.

The Women’s Equality Party is urging the Jeremy Hunt to permit women to legally take the pills outside of registered clinics and the We Trust Women campaign launched by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas) is campaigning to decriminalise abortion throughout the UK.

If you would like advice about abortion services please contact bpas on 03457 30 40 30 or email: info@bpas.org

Please note that this campaign is highlighting difficult examples to show what some women go through and to push for change.