Ministry Acts To Stem Purchase Of Abortion Pills Online By Courier

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Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah says unsupervised use of abortion pills can lead to death. (Bernama pic)KUALA LUMPUR: The health ministry said abortion pills have been acquired illegally online from abroad or smuggled into the country using postal and courier services
It said it received 51 complaints of online sales of abortion pills in 2018 and 2019, which could be abused for illegal abortion
In a statement, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the ministry will work with postal and courier service companies to block the purchase of such pills
He said the ministry has also notified e-commerce platforms based in Malaysia to bring down advertisements on abortion pills
Noor Hisham said authorities viewed the matter seriously as the sale of abortion pills such as misoprostol and mifepristone online as well as consuming them without the supervision of registered medical practitioners can result in uterine rupture, bleeding and infection which can result in death if not treated
He said taking abortion pills can also cause birth defects if the termination of pregnancy is not successful after taking the pills
“Misoprostol is an unregistered product, and the holder of the product’s registration had cancelled its registration with the Drug Control Authority in November 2016 and the products are, therefore, not allowed to be sold in Malaysia
“However, they are frequently abused without doctor’s supervision to terminate pregnancy,” he said
Noor Hisham also said 24 raids targeting abortion pills were conducted from 2016 to 2019 involving seizures worth RM95,233

“During the same period, 302 websites were detected violating regulations enforced by the ministry and from the total, (the names of) 98 websites were sent to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to be blocked,” he said. - FMT

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