Abortion, the first map of the structures where a voluntary termination of pregnancy can be carried out in Italy

Who in our country is located ad abort He knows it well: to do it it is not simple Because from the taking of the decision to its fulfillment, the obstacles are countless. One of the former is often that of Do not know who to contact and in which hospital structure to go. Although there are protocols that should be national, in fact, each region most of the time moves independently, circumventing the rules and forcing those who want to exercise this right sanctioned by law to wander empty for days and to be bounced from one hospital to another.

To buffer, at least partially, this emptiness of information is finally online national map of the health facilities in which it is possible to carry out the voluntary termination of pregnancy.

Requested for years by those who operate in the sector and announced in recent days, can be consulted on the site Epicenter ofHigher Institute of Health. In the initial screen the list of the regions and a design of Italy appears divided by regions. By clicking on both, you access names, addresses and sites of the structures of each territory. Public but also accredited private, clinics and consultors.

Aborti and objection

Next to each structure there is also the Total number of IVG made in 2023the percentage of pharmacological interventions, that of interventions carried out within 8 weeks, between 9 and 11, between 11 and 12 weeks, the percentage of documents and certificates issued by the consultancy.

The mapping represents the final act of a broader project financed by the Ministry of Health as part of the CCM 2022 program and aimed at strengthen the network of professionals involved In the IVG surveillance system, facilitate the collaboration between resources, institutional skills and third sector, promote equity in accessing services and laying the foundations for future interventions oriented to the continuous improvement of the quality of assistance and protection of sexual and reproductive health.

To date, the census of the hospital facilities in which to carry out a voluntary abortion has always been carried out by associations and entities, therefore the fact that finally the ISS is fully charged with it is undoubtedly good news. By observing the information it provides well, however, it is impossible not to notice the Great absentees: the data on conscientious objection of individual health facilities, which in a country like ours in which i Objective gynecologists In 2022 they were the 60.5% of the totalinstead they appear to be primary to determine when a structure is actually receptive.

Officially their lack is due to the fact that iThe Ministry of Health has not yet issued the 2023 datawhich are communicated by each region individually and therefore grouped with longer times than those of the total number of IVG and the type of interventions.

The project managers let them know that as soon as they are available they will be added. If this is the case, any legitimate doubts about the will to truly photograph the situation as a whole, without hiding the enormous criticalitystarting right from the high number of conscientious objectors, which in some structures or territories arrives or touches 100%, forcing those who must make an abortion to exhausting travel even hundreds of kilometers.

Last and emblematic case that of ASL of Vastowhere only in these days the service returned active, after in recent weeks the collective fuchsia area had denounced the story of a woman who had seen herself Reject from the hospital for lack of non -objective doctors.

Pharmacological abortion

A story of ordinary inefficiency that adds up to many others and that draws an alarming picture, also made of so much disinformationlike the one that revolves around thepharmacological abortion. Much less invasive and dangerous than the surgical one, it has become the first choice in many European countries but remains strongly opposed in ours, as shown by the data available on the map.

In this case, the photograph is that of an Italy in spots, with some virtuous regions, such as Lazio and Emilia Romagna that allow home intake of the second of the two abortive drugs, the Misoprostolo (the only ones to do it after almost 5 years from the go -ahead from the update of the guidelines approved in August 2020), and others where abortion is still practiced with other methods.

Disinformation that also affects emergency contraception, with Maurizio Gasparri who said that the Ellaone pillsold as emergency contraceptive In fact, it determines abortion. A completely incorrect information that has gone around the web, feeding yet another doubt in terms of safety of an essential tool for female reproductive health.