Dr. Nisha Cott

I think a really important barrier that women face is access.

So although abortion is legal everywhere in our country, access is a problem because we don't have providers, especially rural regional areas.

We don't have providers for the medical abortions as well as surgical abortions.

And more women face barriers for surgical abortions because, again, surgical abortions mean you need to have a theater, you need to have a surgeon, you need to have an anesthetist.

So those barriers just multiply.

Yes, absolutely.

So although that access has improved, especially again for surgical abortion, often women are paying out of pocket for the procedure.

And that can be hundreds of dollars.

That can definitely be hundreds of dollars.

That would change things, especially again for rural, regional women, because often rural and regional services rely on nurse practitioners and endorsed midwives.

Often they don't have the doctors there to be able to prescribe it.

And we have to remember that nurse practitioners and midwives are trained to be able to go through the history, make sure that they're prescribing the drugs to the right woman at the right time.

So it's not like...

You know, there are no guardrails around it.

Correct.

So if you don't get access in time to medical abortion, then your next option is surgical abortion.

If you live in a place where medical abortion is difficult to get, you are definitely not going to get a surgical abortion easily in that place.

So that means you're probably going to have to travel perhaps thousands of kilometers, spend the money on travel, spend the money on staying where you're going to.

and then have your surgical procedure, which is also going to cost you more money and is going to be more risky.

Whereas a medical abortion doesn't have the surgical risks that go with having surgery.