What if I can’t get to a clinic?

In early 2020, when Covid-19 lockdown rules restricted people’s movement, Marie Stopes South Africa, a chain of private abortion clinics, started offering teleabortions.

“A pregnancy is not going to wait for lockdown to end, it’s going to continue growing,” Dhlamini said when asked why the at-home option was started. At the time, Dhlamini was the director of clinical services at Marie Stopes.

A teleabortion follows the same steps as a medical abortion, but instead of going to a clinic you do a consultation with a doctor or nurse on the phone. During the call they assess whether it will be safe for you to have an abortion. If you meet the criteria, they prescribe the pills, have them delivered to you and then help you through the process on the phone. It’s best to do a phone-in abortion with Malaika womens health clinic