Abortion pill from website is ‘potentially fatal’

MEDICAL experts have warned of the dangers of a drug being provided to Irish women to allow them to carry out an abortion at home.

The Irish Medicines Board is now trying to stop a website from providing women with the drug, which one leading doctor yesterday described as potentially fatal.

The website is an online medical abortion service, which provides an online consultation and sends out an abortion pack that allows women to take medicines at home that will induce an abortion up to the ninth week of pregnancy.

Dr Joan Gilvarry of the Irish Medicines Board said the drug, often referred to as the “abortion pill”, is illegal in this country and there were “serious health risks” for women who used it without medical supervision. “This happening without supervision by a doctor could be extremely dangerous for a patient, and could be fatal.”

She said a woman obtaining this drug was prescribing for herself “a medical abortion and the risks associated with that, the bleeds”.

Dr Mel Bates of the Irish College of General Practitioners said he was “very concerned” to hear about the website. “They seem to suggest that this is something easy, something the public can have confidence in dealing with.”

The procedure is legal in some European countries, but only under medical supervision. It is unknown how many women in Ireland have used this service.

The website has not responded to queries made to it about its service. It claims to help women get a safe medical abortion in order to reduce the number of deaths due to unsafe abortions.