Developing a forward-looking agenda and methodologies for research of self-use of medical abortion

In December 2016, following the “Africa Regional Conference on Abortion: From Research to Policy,” a group of 20 global abortion researchers, representing nine different international organizations and universities, convened to discuss current and future research on medical abortion self-use (http://abortionresearchtopolicy.org). While recognizing the meaning of “self-use” to be evolving, we considered women's self-use of medical abortion as provision of drugs from pharmacies, drug sellers or through online services or other outlets, without a prescription from a clinician, followed by a woman's self-management of the abortion process, including care-seeking for any complications.