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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Initiating second-trimester medical abortions at home

In people undergoing medical abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy, those who took the first dose of misoprostol at home were less likely to require overnight hospitalization.
  1. Karen O’Leary

    1. Karen O’Leary is an Associate Research Analysis Editor with Nature Medicine.

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Medical abortion procedures before 12 weeks of pregnancy can be self-managed, but beyond 12 weeks they typically require hospitalization — which poses challenges for patients and healthcare systems. The combination of mifepristone and misoprostol has reduced the duration of these procedures, and recent evidence suggests that medical abortions after 12 weeks could be managed as day-care visits, although evidence from randomized studies has been lacking.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41591-024-00069-3

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This text on an editorially selected paper was initially drafted using artificial intelligence, then revised and fact-checked by an editor to meet Nature Portfolio publication standards.

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