Early Medical Abortion Fact Sheet

Family Planning and Early Medical Abortion: Myths and Facts...

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Myth: Medical abortion is unsafe…

Fact: Early medical abortion is very safe.

There have been no maternal deaths in Europe, the United Kingdom or Australasia. In the United States there have been eight or 12 reported deaths however these seem to be linked to an infection that was common to a number of unrelated surgical procedures, rather than to the early medical abortion.

It is important to remember that the risk of death following medical abortion is rare. More than 800,000 women in the United States have used Mifegyne (mifepristone) since it was approved in September 2000 and the death rate is estimated as 0.8 per 100,000. The fatality rate for spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) is estimated at 0.7 per 100,000 and the difference is not significant.

By way of context, the death rate for men using Viagra is five deaths for every 100,000 Viagra prescriptions. Even for paracetamol, there are 150 accidental fatal overdoses in the United States each year.

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Myth: Family Planning is the major abortion referral agency in New Zealand…

Fact: In the year to December 2008 17,940 abortions were performed in New Zealand. During this time Family Planning made 4866 referrals throughout New Zealand. If all these referrals resulted in abortions, this means that Family Planning made about one quarter of all abortion referrals.

Over the same year Family Planning had over 180,000 visits to our clinics - abortion referrals represents less than 3 per cent of client visits. Given that Family Planning is a specialist sexual and reproductive health service this figure is hardly surprising.

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Myth: Family Planning is an ardent advocate for the decriminalisation of abortion in New Zealand…

Fact: Family Planning has submitted an application for a license to operate within the current legal framework incorporating the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act 1977, the Crimes Act 1961 and the Care of Children Act 2004. Whilst we recognise the current law has limitations we are working within it, not seeking to change it.

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Myth: Family Planning supports girls under the age of 16 being able to have an abortion without the knowledge or consent of parents…

Fact: Under Section 38 of the Care of Children Act 2004, a law passed by the Parliament of New Zealand, a woman of any age can consent to an abortion. This is not a Family Planning policy - it is the legal, factual situation and applies to all health providers.

Family Planning doctors and nurses encourage all young people attending our clinics to seek help and advice from a parent, family member or other trusted adult.

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Myth: Family Planning will operate a conveyor belt for women who meet the criteria for abortion with only one visit to a clinic required to complete the process.

Fact: A woman seeking an abortion must go through a series of steps set out in law – Family Planning will operate within the legal framework and will fully comply with the legal requirements.

A woman seeking an early medical abortion from Family Planning will have to go through the same legal process as is currently in place. This process means a woman will see a nurse or doctor to have the pregnancy confirmed and will be referred to two certifying consultants to access an abortion. A woman will have four to six visits to health professionals to access the abortion she is seeking.

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Myth: Many doctors employed by Family Planning are certifying consultants…

Fact: We are a specialist sexual and reproductive health service and given that abortion services are part of a reproductive health package it is not at all surprising that some of our doctors are also certifying consultants.

We employ 53 doctors on a permanent or casual basis – fewer than one in four of these doctors are also certifying consultants.

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Myth: The number of abortions will increase if Family Planning provides an early medical abortion service.

Fact: In France, England and Wales, abortions rates did not change significantly from the year before early medical abortion was introduced.

In Sweden, the abortion rate actually fell from 21 abortions per 1,000 women before early medical abortion was introduced to 18 per 1,000 women. Since the introduction of early medical abortion in New Zealand in 2001, the number of abortions has not increased. Rather they have trended downwards, from 18,511 in 2003 to 17,940 in 2008.