The Tamil Nadu Drugs Control Administration is taking steps to regulate the sale of abortion pills in the State. Retail chemists are being monitored for the sale of such pills without valid prescriptions. As of now, 30 retail chemists have come under the scanner, officials of the Department of Drugs Control said.
“The chemists under scrutiny will have to face legal action for selling the pills without prescription. Abortion pills should be sold on a valid prescription from a registered medical practitioner. Some brands mandate prescription by gynaecologists,” an official said.
Each kit of abortion pills comprises five tablets belonging to two categories of drugs — mifepristone and misoprostol.
“These pills, apart from triggering an abortion, could be life-threatening to a woman if taken without a doctor’s advice and supervision. The unregulated sale of the pills was brought to our notice during review meetings by public health officials,” he noted.
Verification exercise
Officials of the Drugs Control Department collect distribution details from manufacturers. Based on the list, they inspect retail chemists and check if they have entered names and addresses of the patients who purchased the pills and names and addresses of the doctors in the prescription register.
“If the address of the patient is entered, we check with the patient if there was a valid prescription for the pill. But if the address is not entered, it is construed as being sold without prescription. We will investigate further and take legal action against such chemists,” he said.
T. Srikala Prasad, head of department, Urogynaecology, Government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital for Women and Children, said abortion pills should not be over-the-counter medications. “When a woman comes to us during early pregnancy, we do an ultrasound to check if the pregnancy is inside the uterus or if it is an ectopic pregnancy. When they buy the pill on their own, they are not evaluated for ectopic pregnancy. Complications may arise if the ectopic pregnancy is missed and patients can bleed terribly, endangering their lives,” she said, adding, “it is advisable to take abortion pills under medical supervision.”
