Guyana Chronicle
May 20, 2001

THE Ministry of Health said it intends to take strong action against pharmacies that dispense the pill, Cytotec, without the required prescription by a doctor.

The Ministry is also to take action against doctors who are not certified under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act to perform abortions, but who use Cytotec for that purpose, a release from Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy said.

The Ministry's stand comes in the wake of reports that the use of Cytotec to terminate pregnancies is on the increase.

According to medical sources, Cytotec is pill used to treat stomach ulcers. It causes internal bleeding.

The Ministry of Health had previously alerted women to dangers associated with the use of Cytotec as an abortion pill.

"The use of Cytotec for the purpose of unsupervised termination of pregnancy is dangerous and there are innumerable examples of women, especially very young women, who are treated at various public and private hospitals for complications resulting from the use of Cytotec for the unsupervised termination of a pregnancy.

"It appears that some doctors not certified under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, are prescribing Cytotec to women for the purpose of termination and unwanted pregnancy. It is not clear whether such prescriptions lead to supervised use of this medication.

"Even more worrisome is the fact that young women are able to obtain Cytotec from various pharmacies without a prescription. It appears as if most women who use Cytotec for an unsupervised termination of a pregnancy obtain the drug via this method," Dr Ramsammy said.

Either of these routes is illegal and is a breach of the regulations, the Health Minister pointed out.

The Minister said that he has requested a meeting with the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Advisory Board to discuss developments since the passing into Law of Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act.

"I am not convinced that Guyana has moved significantly in the direction that the Act pointed us to.

"In its 1999 report, the Advisory Board had indicated some progress, but many shortcomings are obvious. I intend to work with the Advisory Board and others to see how we can effectively pursue the objectives the MTP Act," Dr Ramsammy said.

He added that there are a number of provisions that need to be examined because "Guyana might have honoured now in the breach". The Act itself, he said, requires some adjustment and he intends to pursue those amendments.

Officers of the Health Ministry are to this week discuss the strengthening of the counselling programme so as to provide greater assistance to young women and their families who might need family planning help, the Minister said.