Wagga pharmacy providing abortion care almost daily 'proud' to help

Every day a woman in Wagga collects medical termination pills, while those in need of surgical abortions under the public health system are forced to travel to Sydney.

Southcity Pharmacy owner Luke Van der Rijt said his business administers 30 doses of Mifepristone and Misoprostol - the medications packaged as MS-2 Step used to terminate pregnancy before nine weeks gestation - a month.

That is nearly one person every day across the year at his pharmacy alone.

The medication, which is heavily subsidised under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), is available for about $30 at local pharmacies, with further discounts for concession holders.

But while the federally-run PBS is helping women in the region, the Riverina-based Rural Doctors Association NSW president Rachel Christmas said at a state level, termination services are lacking.

Luke van der Rijt with an example of medical termination of pregnancy medication at Southcity Pharmacy. Picture by Bernard Humphreys

Dr Christmas said women in regional NSW are still being under-served despite more GPs offering medical termination prescriptions.

She said medical termination isn't the only issue, with just two public hospitals offering surgical termination -in Sydney and Newcastle.

"I think one of the problems we have is that we know that termination has been decriminalised, we know that it should be accessible, but it's not," Dr Christmas said.

"There are only two hospitals in NSW that offer the services, the Women's Hospital in Sydney and John Hunter Hospital, this is for public access.

"There are other private providers around the place, Marie Stopes Foundation, there's clinics around the place that do this but they're not as well publicised, they're not accessible to a lot of people and they're expensive.

"This is a very vulnerable time of women's lives they don't have a lot of time up their sleeves to save up the money to access services."

The Temora GP said the system is still catching up after NSW legalised it five years ago, but asserted the problem extends beyond the Riverina.

"No, there's not [enough access], and this is all around the state, it's probably all around the country," Dr Christmas said.

"We know that women who live in rural and remote areas have reduced access to termination care."

Mr Van der Rijt's pharmacy has dispensed medical termination pills for eight years and he said there has been a noticeable uptick of women seeking the medications in that time.

"About 30 a month is where we're at, at the moment, and that's grown a fair bit in the eight years," Mr Van der Rijt said.

"We used to do a couple every few months but now it's around those numbers of 30 a month."

He said the pharmacy works to ensure every patient is comfortable, making accommodation for private consultation rooms and providing female pharmacists when needed.

"We're proud to offer the service, it's really important that people have access to it," he said.

He could not point to a moment that triggered the increase in patients over the past eight years to near-daily.

The pharmacy first began administering medical termination pills at the request of a local GP.

At the time, he said most women were travelling to Albury to see a GP who would provide them with a script, before returning home to fill it, but now he sees scripts from GPs across the area.

Southcity Pharmacy owner Luke van der Rijt and pharmacist Taylor Baxter. Picture by Bernard Humphreys

"We've seen a slow growth of both doctors and pharmacies doing it," Mr Van der Rijt said.

"From a regulation point of view, pre-August 2023, you had to do extra training to dispense it as a pharmacist, so you couldn't go into any pharmacy back then, regulations have changed now, where anyone who's willing to can dispense it just like a normal prescription item."

Mr Van der Rijt said the prescription is "very accessible and affordable" for those with Medicare cards, but acknowledged costs of up to $400 for those without Medicare or an authority prescription from a GP.

General patients pay $31.60 for the medication, with concession card holders paying $7.80, and Closing the Gap patients accessing the medication for free thanks to the PBS.

Mr Van der Rijt was unable to comment on if the public system should be responsible for abortion care - following comments from Wagga MP Joe McGirr - but affirmed universal access.

"I'm pleased it's on the PBS so that price isn't a barrier in this instance," he said.

"I won't comment on the public health system, I don't know about the system, but I do believe in universal access to this, so wherever you live you should be able to access these services."

Dr Christmas said despite legalisation, ongoing stigma is impacting access.

Mr Van der Rijt said he could not predict if the pharmacy will continue to see an increase in women accessing medical terminations, but their numbers have been steady for some time.

He said the 2023 changes in legislation mean more pharmacies are now offering the medication.

"I imagine with awareness more people will come, but if every pharmacy starts doing it, which they definitely should do, to our level, then we might see less," Mr Van der Rijt said.

"As long as people have access in some way to it, that's the most important thing."