Abortion is a legal medical procedure that has been provided to millions of American women. Since the Institute of Medicine first reviewed the health implications of national legalized abortion in 1975, there has been a plethora of related scientific research, including well-designed randomized clinical trials, systematic reviews, and epidemiological studies examining abortion care. This research has focused on examining the relative safety of abortion methods and the appropriateness of methods for different clinical circumstances. With this growing body of research, earlier abortion methods have been refined, discontinued, and new approaches have been developed. The Safety and Quality of Abortion Care in the United States offers a comprehensive review of the current state of the science related to the provision of safe, high-quality abortion services in the United States. This report considers 8 research questions and presents conclusions, including gaps in research.

The Clinical practice handbook for safe abortion care is intended to facilitate the practical application of the clinical recommendations from the second edition of Safe abortion: technical and policy guidance for health systems (World Health Organization [WHO] 2012). While legal, regulatory, policy and service-delivery contexts may vary from country to country, the recommendations and best practices described in both of these documents aim to enable evidence-based decision-making with respect to safe abortion care.

At a UN General Assembly Special Session in 1999, governments recognised unsafe abortion as a major public health concern, and pledged their commitment to reduce the need for abortion through expanded and improved family planning services, as well as ensure abortion services should be safe and accessible. This technical and policy guidance provides a comprehensive overview of the many actions that can be taken in health systems to ensure that women have access to good quality abortion services as allowed by law.

The most controversial medical discovery of our time--the French "unpregnancy" pill--as described by the scientist who created it. RU-486, a drug designed to prevent gestation of the fertilized egg, has sparked an emotional debate that has spilled from the ranks of science into politics, religion, feminism, and ethics. 48 photos and drawings.

Bad products are recalled every day: the Ford Pinto, faulty tires, dangerous prescription pills, contaminated lettuce. If a product is found to pose even a modest risk to those who use it, you can bet it will soon be pulled from the market. . . . Unless that product is abortion.

"Abortion access has been transformed by medication abortion pills. These pills have made safe abortion possible around the world, even in the most restrictive legal contexts. Abortion Beyond Borders follows these pills as they are moved by feminist activists from India into Ireland, Northern Ireland, Poland and the USA. It explores how medication abortion pills and the activists who supply them have changed abortion access, impacted politics, and catalyzed progressive reforms. Abortion Beyond Borders offers an unprecedented, up-close look into the global self-managed abortion movement"--

Medical abortion care encompasses the management of various clinical conditions including spontaneous and induced abortion (both viable and non-viable pregnancies) incomplete abortion and intrauterine fetal demise as well as post-abortion contraception. Medical management of abortion generally involves either a combination regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol or a misoprostol-only regimen. Medical abortion care plays a crucial role in providing access to safe effective and acceptable abortion care. In both high- and low-resource settings the use of medical methods of abortion have contributed to task shifting and sharing and more efficient use of resources. Moreover many interventions in medical abortion care particularly those in early pregnancy can now be provided at the primary-care level and on an outpatient basis which further increases access to care. Medical abortion care reduces the need for skilled surgical abortion providers and offers a non-invasive and highly acceptable option to pregnant individuals.