Japan health ministry formally approves abortion pill for the first time

Japanese health ministry panel has formally approved a pill to terminate early-stage pregnancy, The Japan Times reported. The abortion pill will be available in the country for the first time and will provide an alternative to a surgical procedure. The decision came amid calls to focus on reproductive rights and gender equality for women.

Abortion is authorised only in the presence of certain conditions, outlined by the provision of the Eugenic Protection Law which was implemented in 1948. Artificial abortion is a penal offence.

It is legal for up to 22 weeks but consent is usually required from a spouse or partner, and until now a surgical procedure had been the only option.

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News agency AFP reported that the ministry said in a notification to healthcare officials on Friday it had approved the drug made by British pharmaceutical company Linepharma. For approval in the nation in December 2021, the drugmaker filed its product, a two-step treatment of mifepristone and misoprostol.

In Japan, abortion has remained a matter of contention. Many countries, including France, which approved the abortion pill in 1988, and the United States, where it has been available since 2000, have similar medications.

The pill's clearance to stop pregnancies up to nine weeks follows a ministry panel's approval, which was delayed for a month due to thousands of public comments.

According to the national broadcaster NHK, the whole cost of the abortion pill and a medical consultation would be roughly $700. Notably, the public health insurance does not cover abortions. Surgical abortions can range between 100,000 and 200,000 yen.

In recent weeks, mifepristone has been at the centre of a high-profile US court fight. The United States Supreme Court has temporarily safeguarded access to the widely used abortion medication, halting lower court orders that would have outlawed or severely limited its distribution.

Campaigners in Japan are also advocating for increased availability of the morning-after pill, which prevents pregnancy and the emergency contraception in the country is currently unavailable without a doctor's prescription. It is also the only medicine that must be administered in front of a chemist to prevent it from being sold on the black market.

The government announced after a secondary panel analysed 12,000 public comments submitted online and the final permission from the health minister is forthcoming, although the timetable is unknown.

Japan authorities faced criticism for trailing behind other countries to approve abortion pills as they have been used for around 30 years in other countries, with over 80 countries having access to them.

(With inputs from agencies)

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