Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116427

Linda W. Prine, MD, Andrea Tinio, MD, and Yolanda Tun-Chiong, MD. Department of Family Medicine, Beth Israel Residency in Urban Family Practice, 16 E. 16th Street, New York, NY 10003, 212-366-9320, Lindaprine@earthlink.net

When mifepristone first received FDA approval, expectations were high that abortion access would be greatly expanded for American women. Unfortunately, for many reasons, primary care physicians did not readily embrace this new option for caring for women. One concern on the part of practitioners was that the complications would be difficult to handle in the primary care setting. This paper will present the data from three family practices, with more than 600 medication abortions performed. It will detail all of the “complications” and failed abortions, which constituted less than 3% of the cases. None of the patients required emergency transfer, blood transfusion or an emergency intervention at all. The only patients who visited the emergency room were patients who self-referred, rather than calling their providers first as instructed. In conclusion, medication abortion is clinically very amenable to a primary care, family medicine setting.

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