Abstract
Provision of safe abortion to the full extent of the law is an important component of reproductive health services. The development of methods for the termination of early pregnancy medically (nonsurgically) has created alternative options to make abortion available to women in a variety of healthcare settings. Since the first approval in France in 1988, the regimen of mifepristone followed by a suitable prostaglandin analog has been licensed in over 30 countries and, in many of them, up to 50% of all early abortions are now induced with the regimen. This experience suggests that medical abortion is acceptable to women and safe when provided under proper conditions. Mifepristone is the first and, until now, the only antiprogestin that has been available for medical abortion, while misoprostol has replaced the prostaglandins that were used when the medical abortion regimen was first developed. Further research has focused on improving efficacy, simplifying the regimen and defining the optimal dose and route of administration of misoprostol. In many countries, however, the results from research have not been taken into account at the time the regimen was licensed and this often causes confusion among providers.
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