The role of medical abortion in the implementation of the law on voluntary termination of pregnancy in Uruguay

ObjectiveTo evaluate the implementation of the law that liberalizes voluntary abortion in Uruguay and enables health services to offer these services to the population.MethodsThe legal and regulatory provisions are described and the national data—provided by the Ministry of Public Health’s National Information System (SINADI)—on the number of voluntary terminations of pregnancy, the abortion method (medical or surgical), and whether it was performed as an outpatient or inpatient are analyzed. To determine complications, the number of maternal deaths and admissions to intensive care units for pregnant women was used. The study period ran from December 1, 2012, to December 31, 2014.ResultsA total of 15 996 abortions were performed during the study period; only 1.2% were surgical and 98.8% were medical. Of the latter, only 3.4% required hospitalization. Less than half of the pregnancies were terminated up to 9 weeks of gestation and 54% were at 10 to 12 weeks in a sample from the Pereira Rossell Hospital.ConclusionThe rapid nationwide rollout of voluntary termination of pregnancy services to all women was possible to a large degree thanks to the availability and broad acceptance of medical abortion, facilitated by the prior experience in applying the risk and harm reduction strategy.