No more ultrasounds for women wishing to use the abortion pill and mandatory training for doctors wishing to prescribe it. The College of Physicians lifted the last restrictions on this method of pregnancy termination in Quebec on Thursday.
The requirement for an ultrasound “to ascertain gestational age and location of pregnancy” before obtaining the abortion pill is no longer in effect, the College said in a statement. The same goes for the training that doctors had to undergo in order to prescribe the pill. ” Counting from today […]it is up to the doctor to ensure that he has the knowledge and skills necessary to prescribe this medication,” the statement added.
Restrictions on access to the abortion pill in Quebec have returned to the news, particularly following the reversal by the US Supreme Court of the Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed access to abortion throughout the United States. An open letter co-signed by 300 doctors at the beginning of July also asked the College of Physicians to lift these restrictions. At the beginning of June, the Quebec Abortion Watch Committee issued a press release to decry these restrictive measures.
“Such obligations do not exist anywhere else where medical abortion is common, including the other Canadian provinces,” it read. The College of Physicians specifies for its part that a “working group will examine” new non-compulsory training tools for doctors wishing to prescribe the abortion pill. Other aspects of this medication, such as telemedicine or “the maximum number of weeks of gestation to prescribe it” will also be studied.
Further details will follow.
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