Emergency contraception in Russia will be sold without a prescription

“Postinor” and “Escapel” emergency contraception will now be sold in Russian pharmacies without a prescription. Preparations for medical abortion are still prescription. “Kommersant” writes about it.

The decision to freely sell the first ones, including online, was made by the Ministry of Health after conducting its own research on their safety and evaluating the international experience of their use. Previously, the drugs were sold by prescription, but in pharmacies sometimes they made “relievers” and dispensed them without a doctor’s prescription. Thus, the decision of the Ministry of Health may be an attempt to withdraw these funds from the “gray zone”.

At the same time, at the end of 2023, the agency banned the sale of a number of drugs for medical abortion without a prescription, including misoprostol and mifepristone. The latter in a low dosage is also used for emergency contraception, which caused confusion in the pharmaceutical market. “Actually, we are talking about providing some market players with more favorable conditions,” said the representative of the farm.

The Ministry of Health believes that increased control over these drugs is associated with high risks to health and life when they are used without a doctor’s supervision.

• In July 2023, the head of the Russian Ministry of Health, Mikhail Murashko, after a meeting with deputies of “United Russia”, stated that in Russia they intend to make access to drugs for the termination of pregnancy more difficult.
• The birth rate in Russia has been falling since 2014 – and according to the results of last year, it is at the level of 1999, when the minimum number of newborns in the history of modern Russia was recorded.
• The falling birth rate is regularly brought up for discussion by the Russian authorities. In order to “raise the demographics”, they come up with initiatives to restrict access to abortion and contraception.
• Private clinics in Tatarstan, Kursk and Chelyabinsk regions and in the annexed Crimea have already refused to perform abortions. The authorities of Mordovia, Kaliningrad and Tver oblasts introduced fines for “inclination to abortion”.