Abortion Pills: Under Whose Control?
In English law it is a crime to supply or obtain any "poison or other noxious thing", knowing that it is intended to be used unlawfully with intent to procure an abortion. A conviction took place in 1880 for the supply of half an ounce of juniper oil to a woman with an unwanted pregnancy. This remedy did not cause an abortion in that case, but the substance was held to be noxious. Scientific advances have meant that women are now more likely to use a pharmacological agent than traditional remedies or mechanical means.
Women living in jurisdictions with restrictive abortion laws will often seek non-medical means of inducing an abortion. In contrast to the previous recourse to clandestine operators like Vera Drake in the eponymous 2004 film by Mike Leigh (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383694/), women often now turn to the Internet. Some websites offer misleading information; sites that are against the use of mifepristone are more likely to provide incorrect information. Some sites offer to send the drugs themselves. These may have a medical approach, be online pharmacies or may merely be businesses with no professional input. The cost of the drugs is as little as £15.
Women on Web (http://www.womenonweb.org), which went live in April 2006, has a thorough medical approach. Women are taken through an online medical questionnaire and the results are checked by a doctor. If no medical contraindications are found, the woman is sent mifepristone, misoprostol and a pregnancy test kit to her home address. Eligible women are restricted to those whose gestation is under 9 weeks and who live in a country with a restrictive abortion law. Thousands of women from 88 countries have now received treatment in this way.
Matters are further complicated by the fact that there are now many other websites being operated that send women unregulated drugs that may be inactive substances, impure products, toxic substances or other substances entirely. This is one of the hazards to which the women of Northern Ireland, part of a group of otherwise developed nations, are exposed.
As well as the Internet, there are other sources of abortifacient drugs. These drugs are often imported into the country concerned and sold in shops that are not necessarily pharmacies. One Dublin supermarket was recently fined €5000 for importing mifepristone from China. Customs officials regularly intercept consignments of abortifacient drugs.
In the Cairns (Queensland, Australia) case, Sergie Brennan was accused of supplying mifepristone and misoprostol in order to procure his girlfriend's abortion. He had obtained the drugs through the post from his sister in the Ukraine. There was no attempt to smuggle the drugs. Expert evidence was given in court that mifepristone is not harmful or injurious to the health of a woman and that it is listed as an essential medicine by the WHO and approved for use by the Australian TGA. The jury found Brennan not guilty because they were not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the combination of drugs was a noxious substance.
Obtaining Drugs for Medical Abortion
In English law it is a crime to supply or obtain any "poison or other noxious thing", knowing that it is intended to be used unlawfully with intent to procure an abortion. A conviction took place in 1880 for the supply of half an ounce of juniper oil to a woman with an unwanted pregnancy. This remedy did not cause an abortion in that case, but the substance was held to be noxious. Scientific advances have meant that women are now more likely to use a pharmacological agent than traditional remedies or mechanical means.
Women living in jurisdictions with restrictive abortion laws will often seek non-medical means of inducing an abortion. In contrast to the previous recourse to clandestine operators like Vera Drake in the eponymous 2004 film by Mike Leigh (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383694/), women often now turn to the Internet. Some websites offer misleading information; sites that are against the use of mifepristone are more likely to provide incorrect information. Some sites offer to send the drugs themselves. These may have a medical approach, be online pharmacies or may merely be businesses with no professional input. The cost of the drugs is as little as £15.
Women on Web (http://www.womenonweb.org), which went live in April 2006, has a thorough medical approach. Women are taken through an online medical questionnaire and the results are checked by a doctor. If no medical contraindications are found, the woman is sent mifepristone, misoprostol and a pregnancy test kit to her home address. Eligible women are restricted to those whose gestation is under 9 weeks and who live in a country with a restrictive abortion law. Thousands of women from 88 countries have now received treatment in this way.
Matters are further complicated by the fact that there are now many other websites being operated that send women unregulated drugs that may be inactive substances, impure products, toxic substances or other substances entirely. This is one of the hazards to which the women of Northern Ireland, part of a group of otherwise developed nations, are exposed.
As well as the Internet, there are other sources of abortifacient drugs. These drugs are often imported into the country concerned and sold in shops that are not necessarily pharmacies. One Dublin supermarket was recently fined €5000 for importing mifepristone from China. Customs officials regularly intercept consignments of abortifacient drugs.
In the Cairns (Queensland, Australia) case, Sergie Brennan was accused of supplying mifepristone and misoprostol in order to procure his girlfriend's abortion. He had obtained the drugs through the post from his sister in the Ukraine. There was no attempt to smuggle the drugs. Expert evidence was given in court that mifepristone is not harmful or injurious to the health of a woman and that it is listed as an essential medicine by the WHO and approved for use by the Australian TGA. The jury found Brennan not guilty because they were not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the combination of drugs was a noxious substance.