Chemists decry bid to link pill to female feticide

MUMBAI: Dr Suchitra Dalvie and other experts pointed out that the scarcity of Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) kits can also be blamed on rampant illegal use of the pill, especially in sex-selective abortions. Dr Rekha Daver, who heads JJ Hospital’s gynaecology department, said, “The pill is recommended only for pregnancies of not more than 63 days, that too on a prescription written out by a gynaecologist who has been specially certified to carry out abortions.But in practice, the drug was being dispensed by homoeopaths, MBBS doctors, quacks and chemists themselves.” Dalvie said that even with the availability of the pill, 45% of all abortions were not carried out by recognized MTP service providers or were performed in a place not legally approved for abortions.
Doctors fear the present impasse will take women’s reproductive health back many years. Daver said it was a good measure to let the abortion pill into India. Almost 10 years ago, public health experts celebrated the entry of medical abortions. In a country where unsafe abortions accounted for 8% of all maternal deaths, the MTP kit – which actually has two pills taken 48 hours apart – was offered as the safest option for women seeking to end unwanted pregnancies. India began the pill as an option in the first seven weeks of pregnancy and then extended it to nine weeks.
However, things didn’t go as planned. The pill began to be sold without prescription. Like every other medication, it can have side-effects or lead to worse dangers, like bleeding, abdominal pain and fever.
However, the missing pill is the chemists’ protest against what they say is the government’s move to link the pill to female foeticide. They say the pill can only be used during the first 63 days of pregnancy. “The sex of the unborn child is known only after 12 weeks (84 days). So, how can we be blamed for female foeticide?’’ asked Dilip Mehta of the Maharashtra State Chemists & Druggists Association. He said all association members have been asked to stock the pill and sell it only against proper prescription.
“But abortion is a sensitive and personal matter. Most of the people who come for the abortion pill give wrong names or addresses. How do we chemists work around this?” he asked.

Something as essential to public health as abortion pills going off chemists’ shelves shows how misdirected the FDA campaign has been. Abortion pills, if dispensed legally and properly, don’t lead to female foeticide; they help women escape unwanted pregnancies. Pushing women to opt for unsafe abortions is actually pushing them a generation back. More thought needs to be applied and better brains need to be engaged before embarking on campaigns as important as the present one to end female foeticide.