Dr. Bela Ganatra:

I support what the Deputy said about the recent global estimates released by the WHO last week with which he might be familiar. They referred to safe, less safe and least safe abortions and their distribution globally. We have found that, by medical standards and WHO guidelines, the self-management of medicated abortion, as described by Women on Web, does fall within the safety criteria and would be considered safe. In Latin America, in particular, where access to clinic services is not available, a number of women are accessing abortion pills online, not specifically from Women on Web which is only one service which cannot reach the majority of women who need a service. They do so through a wide variety of often unregulated services which are of unknown quality. We call such abortions less safe simply because women do not necessarily have access to counselling, adequate information or follow-up care. It is still paradoxical that the mortality rate and the number of deaths in seeking this type of care are much lower than for the dangerous methods mentioned by Dr. Aiken such as the use of coat hangers and bleach. It might hide a situation where women are not receiving appropriate and adequate care, but we do not see it as a public health problem because deaths are not happening. It is, however, something of which we need to be aware and conscious.