Medical abortion

• But the past few years have made life harder for many who live there, with Black Summer bushfires, the COVID pandemic and intense flooding.
• While it’s often assumed Australia’s strong agricultural sector means we are secure, these successive disasters show the danger of this assumption.
• In Lismore, they were empty for weeks or up to four months for major supermarkets.

Shorter supply chains are stronger supply chains

• During the floods, food supply chains bent or broke.
• As a local food business owner told us:
  We are not making any money at the moment, just working to maintain customers.
• First, we must think of food as a local system rather than a linear supply chain.

Communities move fast while government often moves slowly

• In the wake of the floods, an inquiry found a worrying lack of preparedness or ability to respond by the state government.
• As one helper told the ABC:
  Everywhere is closed – that’s why we wanted to open the farmers’ market, because everyone’s out of supplies.
• Everywhere is closed – that’s why we wanted to open the farmers’ market, because everyone’s out of supplies.
• The people running local food exchanges and pop-up kitchens served and delivered food to those who couldn’t access food on their own.

Food insecurity is on the rise – and worsened by disasters

• But it’s surged even higher as the nation weathers the economic fallout from the pandemic and rising living costs.
• In 2022, Foodbank reported that one-third of Australian households had problems with finding enough to eat.
• Our study found food charities in the Northern Rivers were also disrupted by the floods.

We should build up community food networks and regional circular economies

Even before the floods, Lismore was one of the most disaster-prone areas in Australia. This won’t be the last major shock the region faces. So what can we do? Our recommendations to boost food resilience include:
• And last year’s floods in South Australia cut the vital Trans-Australian railway, which transports 80% of WA’s food.
• If we harness community networks, innovative solutions and drive policy change, we can build a more resilient and secure food system for the Northern Rivers – and beyond.
• In 2023 this includes the Northern Rivers Community Foundation and Plan C. Sheriden Keegan receives funding from Plan C and Northern Rivers Community Foundation.
• Somayeh Sadegh Koohestani works for Institute for Sustainable Futures and received funding in 2023 from Northern Rivers Community Foundation and Plan C.

• A flurry of court rulings in April 2023 has left the future of the abortion pill mifepristone in question.
• Depending on the outcome, the pill could face a ban or tightened restrictions on its usage, a possibility that has many health care providers concerned.

What is mifepristone, and how does it work?

• It can be taken as one part of a two-part pill regimen for medication abortion.
• Mifepristone acts by blocking the hormone progesterone, which is necessary for a pregnancy to develop.
• But it is commonly used off-label for things like cervical ripening, or softening, to induce or help with labor.
• Both protocols are very effective, with the two-drug regimen up to 99.6% effective and the misoprostol-alone regimen between 84% to 96% in medication abortions.

Why would a person opt for one regimen or the other?

• Patients should feel assured that guidelines for medication abortion support the safety and efficacy of both medication regimens.
• The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Society for Family Planning and the World Health Organization all support both types of medication abortion.

How widely accessible is mifepristone?

• The change means that the drug is available both by mail or at brick-and-mortar pharmacies, as long as that retail pharmacy has been certified.
• While the January 2023 FDA ruling theoretically increases the ways that a person can get mifepristone, so far it has not been widely available at retail pharmacies.

Can I still get mifepristone?

• The Supreme Court’s April 21, 2023, ruling means that there will be no changes to mifepristone access for now.
• As of April 2023, 27 states have some restriction on medication abortion according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health policy organization.

Evidence-based health care

• Medication abortion using mifepristone and misoprostol is exceptionally safe and highly effective, as is medication abortion using misoprostol alone.
• But percentage points mean very little to an individual’s health – what matters is that people get the care they need.
• I will continue working, providing and advancing care that is based on science.

• The leader in telehealth abortion care, carafem , is proud to announce the expansion of its medically supported at-home abortion care service to Connecticut, adding to the list of states where carafem provides safe, affordable, high quality abortion care in the comfort of ones home, including: Georgia, Virginia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia.
• They will receive 24/7 personalized medical support from carafem from the initial video visit to their final follow up visit -- confirming they are no longer pregnant.
• Within 2-3 business days of a video visit with a physician, carafem provides medically supported at-home abortion pills delivered discreetly in addition to personalized medical support.
• carafem is changing the environment of abortion care by making its services and information accessible, understandable, and supportive.

• "Given its 20-year long safety record in the U.S., there is no medical justification for the over-regulation of medication abortion care.
• Over-regulating medication abortion care harms patients and limits their ability to access the care that they need," said Kirsten Moore, Director of the EMAA Project.
• In 2014, 45% of women seeking abortion up to 9 weeks chose medication abortion care .
• The 20th anniversary of medication abortion care comes as the Supreme Court is set to rule on whether to keep suspending this barrier during the pandemic and Republican senators are urging the FDA to ban medication abortion care entirely.