The draft Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2014, proposed by the Union government, allowing practitioners of alternative systems of medicine to perform abortions has not gone down well with city-based experts in the field of maternal healthcare.
The proposed amendment allows ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and homoeopathy practitioners, as well as nurses and auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) to perform abortions apart from allopathic doctors.
N. Venkatesh, former president of Bangalore Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said allowing non-allopathic practitioners to perform abortion was not “acceptable as they lack structured training”.
“Although medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) is a normal procedure that involves medicines to induce abortion, it sometimes also requires admission and minor surgical intervention in cases of incomplete abortion and infections due to the remaining tissue in the uterus,” the doctor said.
Obstetrician gynaecologist and IVF specialist Vidya V. Bhat said she had seen several cases handled by non-allopathic practitioners landing up with complications. “They are doing a mess of it because of lack of knowledge about ultrasound findings. While they have no idea about the dosage to be administered, they also do not co-relate it with the gestational age,” she said.
Abortion pills can be given only up to six weeks or a maximum of 52 days. “In case the tablet is given at a higher gestational age, there can be incomplete abortion and related complications,” Dr. Bhat said.
“By allowing unqualified practitioners to do abortions, we are only increasing maternal mortality and morbidity,” she said.
Some experts, however, believe that a wider option of abortion providers can give more women access to safe abortions, especially in areas where medical facilities are still not optimal.
Hema Divakar, medical director of a private hospital, said while due attention needs to be paid to the use of contraceptive methods to prevent unwanted pregnancies, there was a need for introducing medical abortion pills on priority for early termination of pregnancies.
“This will not only help check maternal mortality rate, but also prevent women, particularly those in rural areas, from approaching quacks for abortion,” she said.
