Organization surprised by criticism of online platform for abortion pill

Advocacy organization Ava is “surprised” by the General Practitioners’ Association’s (LHV) reaction to the initiative thuisabortus.nl. The website, Ava’s idea, lets women in the early stages of an unwanted pregnancy obtain the abortion pill online.

Women have to complete a questionnaire that a team of doctors assesses before approving the request. Upon approval, the abortion pill is sent to a pharmacy, where the woman can collect it. The idea is to improve accessibility to abortion care.

LHV expressed “concerns” regarding the working methods of doctors behind the website. According to the GP’s association, the doctors are unavailable outside office hours for aftercare or complications. That means that women are dependent on the out-of-hours GP service at those times. LHV believes that thuisabortus.nl should have coordinated this with the GPs.

A spokeswoman for Ava points out that women who received the pill via an abortion clinic or GP and need help after office hours also have to go to the out-of-hours GP service. “And this is care similar to that provided during a miscarriage, which doctors are simply familiar with.”

LHV is also critical that the doctors behind thuisabortus.nl do not routinely engage in conversation with the women requesting the pill. They only do so if the request raises questions. The rules for GPs state that doctors must have at least one conversation with the pregnant woman.

Ava counters that the questionnaire women fill out on the website can be interpreted as a conversation. The organization will let the Inspectorate decide on this. The Inspectorate said on Wednesday that prescribing medicine online is legal, but has launched an investigation into how thuisabortus.nl operates.

In the Netherlands, women can terminate an unwanted pregnancy with an abortion pill up to nine weeks. Until January 2025, only licensed gynecologists or abortion doctors were allowed to prescribe the abortion pill. Since then, general practitioners can also do so, but in practice, only 3 to 4 percent of house doctors dispense the abortion pill.

By making the pill available online, Ava aims to lower the barrier to its use. The organization advocates for more accessible abortion care and believes that abortion should be removed from the criminal code.