The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) has been lobbying to change UK laws to allow women to take misoprostol at home. A spokesperson said that requiring women to take the second abortion pill in a clinic may result in them beginning to pass the pregnancy as they travel home, which can include bleeding and other painful or upsetting symptoms.

Anne Furedi, BPAS’ chief executive, said that the Scottish government’s decision “will spare women not only the difficulties associated with having to make more than one clinic visit, childcare, transport, time off work, but it will also spare women from the risk of symptoms on their way home, having taken the medication in a clinic”.

Misoprostol is also given to women who are suffering an incomplete miscarriage, and these women are usually actively encouraged to take the medication at home for their own comfort. For that reason, Furedi said, women in England and Wales should also be allowed to take misoprostol at home if they want to terminate a pregnancy.

“It is simply perverse that a woman arriving at a BPAS clinic in England and Wales with an incomplete miscarriage can be given the medication to take in the comfort and privacy of her own home, while a woman seeking an abortion must take the same medication on site,” she said.

“We hope that the government will follow Scotland’s lead and roll out this important policy change across the rest of Great Britain.”

Images: iStock / Rex Features

Women in Scotland are now legally allowed to take abortion pills at home