If you’d like to learn more about our services or need help booking an appointment, our friendly team is here to assist. All enquiries are handled with complete confidentiality and care — we’re here to make the process simple and supportive. Depending on the type of procedure, your visit may include sedation to ensure your comfort. Most procedures are completed within 10–30 minutes by our experienced proceduralists in a safe clinical environment. Our team is dedicated to ensuring your experience is as calm and stress-free as possible. Our team will guide you through the process and explain every step in detail.
Reliable contraception – the most reliable long-acting reversible methods inserted by a specially trained nurse or doctor. Marie Stopes Australia is a non-profit organisation, part of the Marie Stopes International global partnership, which provides life-changing family planning services to over 25 million people in need each medical abortion melbourne bulk bill year. Read more about what happens after a medical or surgical abortion. Your healthcare provider will give you information about looking after yourself after an abortion.
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She says while Australia is "out in front" in terms of decriminalising abortion, that hasn't always led to improved access — "and in some cases, like NSW, barely at all". "We are not funded to take them, but do our best to accommodate the demand as we understand the distress the patients are enduring." At one point Tori says someone told her "because you've waited so long, there are less options".
Extra antibiotics are prescribed if someone has an undiagnosed infection or develops an infection. Getting an infection is uncommon but when you go home we will give you an information sheet that explains what to expect after the procedure. If there are any concerns, we may be contacted on the surgery number. At the beginning of the procedure, the doctor also does a swab test of the vagina. This is used to identify any women who may have an undiagnosed infection.
For many women, visiting their GP to confirm the pregnancy is the first step. The longer a pregnancy progresses, the more difficult it can be to access an abortion. The second step consists of four tablets, which need to be taken between 24 and 48 hours after the first step. Take them all at once, by letting them dissolve in your mouth (in your cheeks and under your tongue). These tablets cause the cervix to soften and the uterus to contract, essentially inducing a miscarriage.
Abortion services are not easily to access in rural and remote areas. You may also need to take time off work and arrange care for any other children. Please refer to our medical abortion and surgical abortion pages for more detailed information about your options. A surgical abortion involves a surgical procedure to empty the uterus. It’s mostly performed in the first trimester, but in some states and territories, you can have one until the 24th week of pregnancy.
Clinic 66 will only refer you to clinics providing medical or surgical abortion legally and safely, staffed by trained health professionals. Both medical and surgical abortions are safe and effective healthcare procedures. And medical abortion is now a more accessible option for a lot of people. The cost of post-procedure care items varies with insurance coverage and regional factors. In Victoria, Australia, follow-up appointments with healthcare providers typically cost between $35 and $55 AUD; whereas blood tests through community health services are often free but may be up to $100 AUD privately.
If you have Medicare you may be able to have an abortion in a public hospital, where there are no fees. It’s important to know, however, that not every Victorian public hospital provides abortion. Some hospitals may only accept patients under specific circumstances. Statistics on the rate of abortions in Australia are not publicly available. However, extrapolating figures from West Australia and South Australia — the only states to make figures available — suggests that about 65,000 women terminate their pregnancies each year. Of those, only about 1 per cent are late surgical abortions after 20 weeks.
Were all the recommendations of the recent Senate Inquiry adopted, equitable access to abortion could finally become a reality in Australia. It also highlights access gaps to surgical abortion and medication abortion across the state, with major differences in more disadvantaged and regional areas. Access to contraception is also inequitable with many disadvantaged areas not having providers offering long-acting reversible contraception like IUDs. It paints a clear picture of the inequities and enablers for people seeking abortion and contraception services in Victoria. Dr Hyde contacted private clinics to try to negotiate care on compassionate grounds, closer to home — surgical terminations performed privately can cost hundreds of dollars, sometimes more. Only two public hospitals in the state offer formal termination services — the Royal Hospital for Women in Sydney, and John Hunter in Newcastle.
Current restrictions mean that only doctors who are licensed prescribers and specially trained can prescribe the medical abortion pill, MS-2 Step. Home-based medical abortion is intended to simplify the medical abortion regimen while providing best medical practice. Self-administration is common in many countries around the world, and medical abortion has been used by millions of women since it was approved in 1988. If you are feeling distressed after your abortion you can speak to a pregnancy options counsellor or your GP. They are easy to find and access, with friendly staff ready to support you. Understand Victoria's abortion laws, including criminal law implications, gestational limits and legal requirements.
If a woman requires urgent care, please mark your referral ‘URGENT’ and provide the reason so it can be triaged and prioritised accordingly. Remember you must make arrangements for transport home after your procedure. When you arrive home, take it easy for the rest of the day – don’t operate any machinery and don’t drive a motor vehicle for the remainder of that day and night. Whilst you are in recovery, you will be given an antibiotic to take at home (after food). Full courses of antibiotics are not routinely prescribed, unless indicated.