Women s and pharmacy workers knowledge and practices on medical abortion

This study aims to get insight of the knowledge and practices of women and pharmacy workers related to the use of medical abortion to interrupt pregnancies. The information was obtained by using two research methodologies: (1) a community based research by applying questionnaires to women between 15 to 24 years living in a marginalized area in Mexico City and (2) a simulated client method to obtain information on the attitudes and practices of pharmacy workers when a woman ask for a recommendation in a situation of a confirmed pregnancy in 177 randomize selected pharmacies of the state of Morelos. The main findings of the community approach research establish that most of the women (73%) reported knowledge about substances to interrupt pregnancies, but with small percentages when specifying the name of the substances. Most of the women that reported doing something to interrupt pregnancies used misoprostol and in a less extent manual vacuum aspiration. In the pharmacy workers survey, the 52.5% of the pharmacy workers of the selected pharmacies recommended medicine to interrupt women's pregnancy. Only 20.9% of the pharmacy workers mentioned misoprostol as an option for women, but misoprostol was not available in 32% of the pharmacies in which workers suggested that option. Both reasearch findings show that women and pharmacy workers know in a vague sense the ways to use misoprostol and the fact that it is not available for women because of the excesive cost (100-120USD/28 pills) and lack of the product in the pharmacies.