Japan: Japan has approved a drug that can terminate early-stage pregnancies and will make the abortion pill available for the first time.

Abortion is legal in Japan for up to 22 weeks, but consent is usually required from a spouse or partner, and until now, surgical procedures had been the only option.

The health ministry has approved a two-step treatment of mifepristone and misoprostol made by British pharmaceutical company, Linepharma. Similar medication has been available in many countries, including France since 1988, and in the US 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.

According to reports, the total cost of the abortion pill and medical consultation will be around $733. Abortions are not covered by public health insurance, and surgical abortions can cost between $733 and $1467 yen.

Mifepristone has been at the centre of a high-profile US court battle recently, with the supreme court temporarily preserving access to the widely used abortion drug, freezing rulings by lower courts that would have banned or severely restricted its availability.

Campaigners in Japan are also pushing for better access to the morning-after pill, which cannot be bought without a doctor’s approval. It is the only medicine that must be taken in front of a pharmacist to stop it being sold on the black market.

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