France wants to produce abortion pills to guarantee stock – 06/24/2023 – Health

The so-called “Veil” law [referência à deputada, intelectual e feminista Simone Veil, militante dos direitos das mulheres na França], of January 17, 1975, decriminalized abortion in France 48 years ago. French women have universal and unrestricted access to abortion pills when they want to terminate a pregnancy and the country is considering manufacturing its own stockpile of medication. In Brazil, abortion has remained illegal since 1890.

In the 1940s, Brazil adopted exceptions in the prohibition of abortion for pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or in case of threat to the life of the pregnant woman. However, abortion in the country is still considered a crime and can be punished with up to three years in prison.

The result is that, according to several reports published in the Brazilian press, the female public is massively betting on the parallel trafficking of medicines such as cytotec (misoprostol), one of the substances recommended by the WHO (World Health Organization) for medical abortion.

The other is mifepristone, which has never had widespread use in Brazil. France, on the other hand, is preparing to invest in the production of both substances for its domestic market.

MISOPROSTOL

In early April of this year, doulas and doctors in some regions of France began to report that they were having problems accessing misoprostol, one of two drugs used in medical abortions in the country.

“This year, MisoOne ended very quickly. Then we bought Gymiso and soon it was no longer available in France”, he told RFI Isabelle Louis, who works for Planning Familiale in Paris, a public reproductive health clinic that provides contraception and abortions in the city and region.

MisoOne and Gymiso are the names of the two misoprostol medicines authorized in France, both produced by the same pharmaceutical company, Nordic Pharma. When Isabelle’s pharmacy was unable to obtain the drug, “we were left at a loss as to how to provide abortion to women,” she said.

Misoprostol, along with mifepristone, is used in medical abortions, which accounted for the majority – 76% – of pregnancy termination procedures in France in 2021.

In April of this year, when pharmacists in some parts of France were unable to obtain misoprostol, concern was raised that medical abortions are only allowed up to seven weeks of pregnancy.

Isabelle Louis remembers not having enough pills for one patient, who had to be referred to another doctor across town. “Our partner doctor had one more pill left. So we gave our patient the address and she had to go through all these barriers to access her rights,” she said.

IMPACT OF THE “WAR ON ABORTION” IN THE USA?

The misoprostol shortage in France came as the US Supreme Court was hearing a case that could bar federal approval of the drug mifepristone – part of a move by conservative anti-abortion activists.

Are US suppliers stockpiling abortion drugs, creating a global shortage?

Pauline Londeix, of the Independent Observatory for Transparency in Drug Policy, who was involved in alerting French authorities to the shortage of misoprostol, said that what was happening in the US was worth considering, but that France has a structural and long-term relationship to drug shortages.

“There are shortages of almost all medicines,” she told RFI. “There are shortages of insulin, antiretrovirals, anticancer drugs. There are thousands of drugs that we are facing shortages for in France.”

PROTECTING THE RIGHT TO ABORTION

Left-wing deputies and senators in France, concerned about not leaving abortive drugs concentrated in a single producer, presented a bill that would require the public production of mifepristone and misoprostol “to guarantee women the fundamental right to abortion”.

Londeix welcomes moves to produce more drugs in France and the push for public production, but she is wary of abortive drugs.

“Public production is important, but in this specific case, we believe that we also need private production. We need both, because if there is a change of government in France and the extreme right, for example, accessing power – if there is only production public, this can be a problem”, he considered.

After several warnings about misoprostol shortages in April, the French Ministry of Health responded by saying there was no shortage, just social “tensions”. French pharmacists were able to obtain supplies of the drug destined for Italy. At the family planning clinic in Paris, Isabelle Louis received boxes labeled in Italian, with stickers added in French.

“For now, we’re probably getting back to normal,” she said recently. “But we don’t know how long this will last,” she finished.