Women who have a chemically-induced abortion in the first nine weeks of pregnancy will be able to obtain abortion drugs directly from their GP or hospital doctor [1]. This means they will not have to fill a prescription in a pharmacy. This will avert the need to have to produce a prescription in public.
Meanwhile, the option of contracting private clinics to provide an ultrasound service [2] to women seeking an abortion, under proposed new legislation, is being considered.
However, doctors have queried how they will source the required expertise, given that there is a shortage of sonographers.
Dr Mike Thompson, a GP member of Start (Southern Taskgroup on Abortion and Reproductive Topics), said private clinics had not previously provided routine pregnancy scans, so it was “unclear how they can now offer a very specialised scanning service”.
A specialised service of early medical ultrasounds would be needed to ensure that a pregnancy is not gone beyond 63 days, the cut-off point for when abortion-inducing drugs could be administered.