Pill test coincides with fewer abortions

Photo / Christchurch Star

Giving girls and women the emergency contraceptive pill for free may have reduced the number of abortions performed by the Auckland District Health Board, officials suggest.

The board's six-month free pill pilot programme, costing $300,000, ends tomorrow.

It is too early to know if the scheme, in which the Levonelle 1 pill was made available free at Auckland City pharmacies, has had any effect on teen pregnancies, but a board paper by a planning and funding manager, Wendy Hoskin, indicates it may have affected the number of terminations performed at the board's Epsom Day Unit, the region's main abortion provider.

"When reviewing the statistics on termination of pregnancy, there has been a 13 per cent reduction in the numbers undertaken over the [October-December] period," she says. "There could be a variety of reasons for the reduction, however early results show a positive trend."

Yesterday, Ms Hoskin said the figures would need to be studied in more detail before it could be determined whether the pill project had really had an effect. A full analysis would be provided to a board advisory committee in May.

The Epsom Day Unit performed 5524 abortions, 30.8 per cent of the national total, in 2006. Preliminary results show under the free pill scheme, 5334 people - 19 per cent were aged under 20 - were given the pills from October to the end of last month. As part of the project, recipients were also given a packet of condoms and a pamphlet on sexual health and contraception.

The pill usually costs patients around $35 at pharmacies, unless they tap into state funding. It is free at the Auckland Regional Sexual Health Service and, for young women and girls, at some GP clinics. Family Planning clinics offer free sexual health consultations to those under 22, but there is a $3 prescription charge.

Auckland Women's Health Council co-ordinator Lynda Williams wants the free pill programme made permanent and extended to other areas.

"Having to wait weeks and make a booking for a termination - that is a far more emotionally fraught and potentially damaging process for women to go through than going to a pharmacist and asking for the emergency pill."

Voice for Life communications manager Bernard Moran said last night that in Britain, where the emergency contraceptive pill had been provided free in schools, it appeared to have led to increased rates of teen pregnancy and abortion, contrary to expectations.

Right to Life spokesman Ken Orr said that in some cases, Levonelle 1 could induce an abortion because the sperm had fertilised the egg. This was not stated on a patient information sheet about the drug. If it was, some women would choose not to use it, he said. He intends to write to the supplier to have this information added.