Media Release: NSW needs 2 Step up as medical abortion pill access expanded
Dr Amanda Cohn, NSW Greens MP and a former medical abortion prescriber, has responded to newly announced federal reforms to improve access to medical abortion.
On 11 July the Therapeutic Goods Administration announced time-consuming and restrictive requirements for certification and registration of prescribers and dispensing pharmacists for medical abortion pill MS-2 Step would be removed.
This means that all pharmacies are able to fill scripts for medical abortion. Healthcare practitioners other than doctors, for example nurse practitioners, may be able to prescribe medical abortion if states and territories update and harmonise their legislation.
Dr Amanda Cohn MLC, Greens spokesperson for Health and Chair of the NSW Legislative Council Health Committee:
“This decision by the TGA re-emphasises that abortion is health care and should be available through mainstream health services without onerous and restrictive red tape for prescribers and dispensing pharmacists.”
“When I was working as a medical abortion prescriber, too many of my patients had to face the extra hurdle of finding or traveling to a registered pharmacy to fill their script. When medical abortion tablets must be taken before 9 weeks gestation, this compounded the time pressure for patients and providers.”
“For abortion services to truly be accessible across the whole of NSW and without financial or geographic barriers, NSW needs to update its legislation to empower the additional prescribers now permitted by the TGA, as well as ensure first trimester surgical abortion is available at every public hospital.”
Media contact:
Alice Gifford | 02 9230 2566
Read more on where Labor’s promise to make abortion free and more accessible has stalled on ABC News: