Self-managed abortion: A life-saving revolution

I became an abortion provider almost 10 years ago.

Since then, I have helped countless people around the world access safe abortion care. I’ve also witnessed the devastating complications from unsafe abortion when people do not have access to this essential healthcare.

Unsafe abortion is one of the main causes of maternal death and suffering worldwide, and the only one that is almost entirely preventable.

A life-saving game-changer

An abortion with pills is a game-changer. The simple treatment, taken over 24 hours, has the power to completely revolutionise access to safe abortion care, especially in the low-income countries and humanitarian crises where Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) works.

Used by millions of people for over 30 years, we have decades of research and experience showing how safe and effective abortion pills are.

They successfully end pregnancy more than 95 percent of the time and the risk of severe, life-threatening complication is less than one percent.

They are inexpensive, easy to use, and so reliable that most people can take the pills at home without any problem.

Unfortunately, they’re also the best-kept secret about abortion. Many people still don’t know what an abortion with pills is, how it works, or how safe it is.

Legal restrictions and bans, social stigma, and unnecessary medical requirements also limit access.

These barriers disproportionately impact the most marginalised: people of colour, people living in poverty, adolescents, people living in rural areas, and those affected by crisis or conflict.

Changing the conversation

To increase access to safe abortion care, in 2017 MSF streamlined its protocols for an abortion with pills and removed routine medical testing, such as ultrasounds and blood tests.

In MSF projects, safe abortion care is now essentially a conversation between two people during which accurate information is shared and pills are provided for the person to take at home.

Since we started this new approach, we’ve seen a rapid increase in the number of people we are able to care for: from 781 in 2016 to more than 30,000 in 2020.

In figures: Unsafe abortion

We are now exploring ways to reach even more people and further support self-managed abortion with pills.

This means taking abortion medications outside of a ‘formal’ medical setting, and covers a spectrum of practices that have different levels of interaction with the healthcare system.

From our experience, we have learned that you don’t need clinical tests, medical equipment, surgical capacity, or even a healthcare facility to make an abortion with pills safe.

All you need for a safe abortion with pills is three elements: accurate information, quality medication, and mutual respect and trust.

2 | Quality medications

For reasons that have more to do with social norms and politics than patient safety or well-being, the second element, quality medications, can be difficult to come by.

Even though they are on the World Health Organization list of essential medications, the quality, cost, and availability of the medicines varies considerably by country and location.

There are some online resources that can help people find them, but in reality, abortion pills are so safe, important, and widely used that they should be as easy to access as over-the-counter medicines found in drug stores.

3 | Mutual respect and trust

Mutual respect and trust is arguably the most essential element – and also the most elusive.

It means challenging assumptions about people who have abortions, expanding our comfort levels, and trusting pregnant people to make their own decisions about the care they need and how they want to receive it.  

To break the stigma around abortion and amplify the voices, needs, and lived experience of people who have had abortions, on International Safe Abortion Day, 28 September, MSF is sharing stories about abortion from the places where we work.

We hear from people all over the world – from Colombia to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Greece to India, people of many religions, young and old, those with and without children – about their abortion experiences.

These stories challenge the tendency to reduce the abortion experience to a single narrative that stereotypes, blames, and stigmatises those who have abortions.

When we hear from people who have had an abortion in different circumstances around the world, we gain a deeper appreciation of how crucial and life-saving access to safe abortion care is. It also shows that people are already self-managing their abortions to some extent.

Our role as healthcare providers should be to make abortion care as safe, comfortable, and dignified as possible. This means enabling people to decide for themselves how, when, and where they have an abortion and with whose support – not being gatekeepers to this essential healthcare.

Self-managed abortion is about more than increasing access: It's about upholding people’s autonomy and ensuring they can take the lead in their own care.

People everywhere should have access to respectful and safe abortion care.

Here are just three of these anonymous stories:

If I'd had to, I would have looked anywhere for something that could end the pregnancy. There are many options – there are plants, there are things you can drink. I can’t get pregnant again because I could die.

The next day, MSF sent me to the hospital to receive the pills for an abortion. My whole family supported me having the abortion. I already have children. I want to see them grow big.

Now, I’ve received an implant that will prevent me from getting pregnant for five years. Thank God, MSF gave me this implant for free – in Maracaibo, it would be expensive."

Typically, in our country, it's difficult to talk about problems such as unwanted pregnancy. It's complicated with our traditions and taboos. Young girls are afraid that if their parents know they are pregnant, they'll be beaten or thrown out of the family.

It's very painful. We should be able to say that: it's painful. Girls are losing their lives.”

Here, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, it is not easy to talk to people about something like this. I only told some people what happened – but I can’t tell anyone else, not even my mother. If I tell anyone, they'll think I'm a monster. In our culture, if you have an abortion people think you're a witch. So many women do it in secret and it can be dangerous, or even kill them. This is what almost happened to me.

I would like us to break the taboo on abortion and treat people who have abortions as normal people.”