AN EFFECTIVE, LOW-COST REGIMEN FOR EARLY MEDICAL ABORTION

A consecutive series of 360 women with pregnancies of up to 63 days of amenorrhoea requesting medical abortion were managed using a low-cost regimen of mifepristone (200 mg) followed by vaginal administration o f misoprostol (800 mu g). Results in terms of complete abortion rate, continuing pregnancy rate and proportion of women aborting within six hours were similar to those described with the standard medical aborti on regimen of mifepristone (600 mg) and gemeprost (1 mg). The reported regimen thus combines clinical effectiveness with costs which are low er than those associated with the standard treatment or with suction t ermination.