Requests for medical abortions have surged in Latin American countries with Zika outbreaks — but only in places where government officials have issued health alerts to pregnant women, a new study finds. Authors of a study published Wednesday in the The New England Journal of Medicine found sharp increases in appeals for abortion pills to Women on Web,
a non-profit based in the Netherlands that provides prescriptions for abortion pills to women from areas with restrictive abortion laws. Most Latin American and Caribbean countries ban or sharply restrict access to abortion. Women on Web uses a pharmacy partner to mail the pills — drugs called mifepristone and misoprostol — to women in the first nine weeks of pregnancy. The group is providing abortion pills free of charge to women in Zika-affected countries. READ MORE
