How to ensure a safe abortion with pills
Accurate information about an abortion with pills should be common knowledge-it should be easy to find by everyone. But this is not the reality, and misinformation and myths about how abortion pills work are everywhere. To address this knowledge gap and share accurate, evidence-based information, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and SafeAbortionClinic have created this video series for anyone looking to learn more about an abortion with pills up to 13 weeks of pregnancy.
The videos help explain when abortion pills can be used to end a pregnancy, how to use the pills, what to expect, when to seek additional care, and how to know if they worked. They can be used by people looking for guidance on how to safely self-manage an abortion, people planning to receive care at a health facility, those who simply want to better understand the process, and everyone in between.
Self-managed abortion with pills means obtaining and taking abortion pills outside of a medical setting. It most commonly refers to taking abortion medications at home with the help of telephone hotlines or online platforms. Self-managed abortion increases access to safe abortion care for vulnerable people and those who live far away from health care facilities. It also upholds people's autonomy and supports them to make decisions about, and take the lead in, their own care.
A REVOLUTION IN SAFE ABORTION CARE
A safe abortion with pills requires only three things: accurate information, quality medications, and mutual respect and trust. Because of this, medication abortion has expanded access to safe abortion care for millions of women and girls around the world-especially in conflict and crisis settings.
A self-managed abortion can be just as safe and effective as the more traditional, facility-based approach. Therefore, in recent years, self-management of abortion with pills has gained increased acceptance by the formal health sector as safe and appropriate. Abortion pills successfully ends pregnancy more than 95 percent of the time and the risk of severe, life-threatening complication is less than 1 percent. It is inexpensive, easy to use, and so reliable that most people can take the pills at home without any problem. Read more here.