Abortion

Around 120 million unintended pregnancies occur each year globally, 60% of which typically end in abortion. This translates to 73 million abortions per year. There is currently virtually no R&D into new drugs or devices for abortion.

While available drug regimens offer efficacious abortion options, there are product gaps for very early abortion (or menstrual regulation), and the development of new medicines or devices could improve accessibility beyond restrictive legal frameworks. Accessibility restrictions to existing abortive drugs and procedures, as well as the absence of very early abortion products, lead women to have to resort to unsafe abortions. The World Health Organization defines unsafe abortion as a procedure of pregnancy termination either by person’s lacking the necessary skills or in an environment that does not conform to minimal standards or both. Immediate complications of unsafe abortion include haemorrhage, sepsis, uterine perforation and damage to other internal organs. It requires urgent medical care, which may include blood transfusion, reparative surgery, and hysterectomy. In the long term, anaemia and infertility can also result from unsafe abortion. Unsafe abortion is highly preventable, however almost half of all abortions are unsafe, with 97% of these unsafe abortions occurring in low- and middle-income countries. It is estimated that 13% of maternal deaths occur each year due to unsafe abortion, predominately in underserved populations.