London – The number of MSI country programmes providing medical abortion doubled to 28 during 2007, with Population Health Services India (PHSI) selling almost 100,000 medical abortion packs in late 2007 to women who would otherwise not have been able to access a safe abortion.

While medical abortion provides an additional option to women attending clinics where surgical abortion is also available, MSI is crossing new frontiers by taking this technology into rural areas beyond the catchment and referral areas of any clinic network.

“We are investing considerable resources to ensure that medical abortion reaches the women who most need it,” said Kate Worsley, MSI’s medical abortion specialist. “We expect this technology to greatly enhance MSI’s response to unsafe abortion and for our efforts to contribute to the efforts of others to decrease the number of unsafe abortions each year.”

According to Worsley, PHSI experience in getting medical abortion outside clinical settings is now being shared across MSI country programmes.

MSI's programme in India