Vietnam introduces medication abortion to enhance women's options for safe pregnancy termination

In accord with new national guidelines aimed at increasing women's access to comprehensive reproductive health care, the Vietnamese government recently trained leading physicians to provide medication abortion.

Photo courtesy of Jean-Leo Dugast, Panos Pictures.

In collaboration with Ipas and the World Health Organization, the government of Vietnam has begun training the country’s leading obstetrician-gynecologists to offer medication abortion, thus expanding women’s options for safe pregnancy termination. Two recent workshops in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi trained 45 clinicians in use of mifepristone and misoprostol for early abortion, laying the foundation for establishment of national and provincial training centers.

Vietnamese law permits abortion up to 22 weeks of pregnancy for a broad range of health and social indications, and abortion services are widely available through the government health system, including in rural areas. To date, however, the choice of methods available to women has been limited. The recent training and planned follow-up activities aim to rectify that omission as part of the implementation of Vietnam’s new national guidelines for reproductive health care, which are based on recent technical and policy guidance on safe abortion from the World Health Organization.

“Introduction of medication abortion allows a choice for women who have different desires, priorities and needs,” said Ipas Senior Training and Services Advisor Alyson Hyman, who helped to lead the recent workshops and to develop the new guidelines. “Some women feel that medication abortion is a more natural, more private process.”

At the trainings in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, leading physicians from two national and two provincial referral centers underwent five days of didactic training followed by five days of supervised clinical practice at their respective facilities. The training emphasized topics such as:

• the safety and effectiveness of medication abortion, as demonstrated by clinical trials in Vietnam and worldwide
• eligibility and contraindications for the technique
• management of complications
• counseling

Trainers focused particular attention on developing participants’ counseling skills because counseling is an especially important aspect of medication-abortion provision. Only part of a medication abortion procedure takes place under clinical supervision, Hyman said, making it imperative that women fully understand the procedure. Research shows that women are more satisfied with medication abortion when they are adequately informed about what to anticipate and if they properly adhere to the prescribed regimen.

After completion of the training, which was financially supported by The Ford Foundation, participants began offering routine medication abortion services up to 7 weeks of pregnancy at their home facilities.

Ipas has worked for more than 30 years to enhance women's access to high-quality abortion services in circumstances in which it is legal. As medication abortion becomes more widely available, Ipas is incorporating information on the method into training curricula and other educational materials. Recently the organization added a significant amount of information on the technique to its website.

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258