There are new calls for nurses to take charge of most aspects of medical abortion to boost women’s access to terminaton services.

Aside from prescribing mifepristone-misoprostol (MS 2-Step), which must be done by a doctor registered with MS Health, medical abortion advocates say nurse-led evaluation, counselling and follow-up of patients would benefit rural women in particular. 

Nationwide, only 1300 GPs have completed the training and registration that was a mandatory condition when the TGA first approved the regimen in 2006.

In a letter to the Medical Journal of Australia, public health researchers Dr Caroline de Moel-Mandel (pictured) and Associate Professor Melissa Graham, from La Trobe University in Melbourne, said that a nurse-led model of care would increase women’s access to abortion.