The health ministry of Japan on Friday approved the sale of an oral abortion pill, giving women in early pregnancy an alternative to the surgical procedure.
The abortion pill will become available in Japan for the first time after the health ministry approved the drug used to terminate early-stage pregnancy.
The health ministry on Friday approved the sale of an oral abortion pill, giving women in early pregnancy an alternative to the surgical procedure. Abortion is legal in Japan up to 22 weeks, but consent is usually required from a spouse or partner.
The ministry said in a notification to healthcare officials on Friday it had approved a drug made by Linepharma. The British pharmaceutical company filed its product, a two-step treatment of mifepristone and misoprostol, for approval in Japan in December 2021, reported The Guardian.
France was the first country to approve the abortion pill in 1988, and in the US, it has been available since 2000.
The approval of the pill to end pregnancies up to nine weeks follows a ministry panel endorsement, which was postponed for a month as thousands of public submissions were made.