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Every year, millions of women around the world risk their lives with an unsafe abortion; nearly 70,000 will die, and millions will be hospitalized with complications. Even in countries where abortion is legally permitted, women still face barriers to safe abortion care – barriers such as knowledge, cost or distance. Improving access to safe abortion services is a public health imperative.
Concept Foundation in Thailand has launched a new product, Medabon®, to provide women with a more affordable and accessible option for medical abortion. The product combines the medications commonly used in medical abortion, mifepristone and misoprostol, in a single package for the first time. The World Health Organization recommends this combination regimen as a preferred method of inducing abortion. A single package will give health-care providers, pharmacists and women confidence that they are using the right medicines in effective doses.
Concept is currently working to introduce Medabon in Nepal, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique, Vietnam, and Zambia – countries where abortion is legally permitted under a range of circumstances, but not necessarily accessible. “This product will make medical abortion a reality for more women, especially in countries where mifepristone was previously unavailable,” said Traci Baird, director of Ipas’s Medical Abortion Initiative.
Ipas and PATH collaborated with Concept to develop an information package as a guide for health-care providers and program managers who are working to introduce Medabon in their local contexts. Medabon for Medical Abortion: Resource Materials for Health Care Providers and Program Managers includes guidelines detailing evidence-based regimens and protocols for administering Medabon, a brochure for women considering Medabon, general information about the product, and a framework to guide policymakers through a systematic approach to introducing Medabon in their countries.
“These materials are designed to be adapted for a wide range of country contexts and service settings,” said Baird. The package also includes guidelines for adaptation and potential illustrations to enhance communication with a low-literacy audience.
Medabon for Medical Abortion: Resource Materials for Health Care Providers and Program Managers can be downloaded at www.medabon.info. Printed copies can be requested by contacting the Concept Foundation at medabon@conceptfoundation.org.
For more information, contact media@ipas.org