Significant changes to abortion regulations will be implemented next month. 

Under the new rules, Australian prescribers and chemists will no longer require additional certification or special registration to dispense the medicine, making medical abortions more readily available.

Currently, only 10 per cent of doctors in Australia are registered to prescribe medical abortions, leading to a lack of local providers in many areas. 

According to the SPHERE Centre, 30 per cent of Australian women have no access to abortion care in their vicinity, while the situation is even worse in remote regions where half of the women cannot access it locally.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) will remove the certification requirements on August 1, allowing MS 2-step to be prescribed like any other medicine.

This change has been welcomed by doctors and the federal government, who view it as a significant step in eliminating barriers to accessing medical abortions.

However, GPs caution that more needs to be done to increase the number of healthcare professionals prescribing the medication.

The regulatory adjustments align Australia with countries like Canada and are also in line with recommendations from a recent senate inquiry into reproductive healthcare. 

The updated regulations will also coincide with Medicare changes, as nurse practitioners will join doctors in having these prescriptions subsidised by the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. 

Given the time-sensitive nature of the procedure, with MS 2-Step only applicable in the first nine weeks of gestation, increasing access to medical abortions becomes even more crucial.