What the 2023 rule changes removed

Before the reforms, a GP could prescribe MS-2 Step only after completing additional training and registering, and pharmacists likewise had to be registered before they could dispense the drug.

• •The Therapeutic Goods Administration scrapped the pharmacist registration requirement.
• •It also relaxed the administrative hurdles around the medication.
• •Appropriately trained nurse practitioners and endorsed midwives became eligible to prescribe MS-2 Step.
• •Any GP can now prescribe the abortion pill.

To measure the effect, researchers led by La Trobe University compared pharmacy ordering data covering the two years before and the two years after the changes, which the regulator made in 2023.

Where the pill is now stocked

By mid-2025, the study found 49% more pharmacies stocking MS-2 Step than before the policy change, with the count rising from 2,228 to 4,107.

• •The number of Australian postcodes with a pharmacy stocking the medication grew from 915 to 1,292, reaching nearly half of all postcodes two years after the changes.
• •Regional coverage rose from 23% to 35% of postcodes.
• •The share of stocking pharmacies in remote areas nearly doubled, from 12.5% to 22%.

Researchers: care closer to home

Lead author Prof Kristina Edvardsson, of La Trobe University's school of nursing and midwifery, said the findings show Australian women who need the medication can access it closer to home. She said the change removes unnecessary travel and stress once a prescription is written, which matters most for disadvantaged women and women in rural and remote areas without the means to travel, and that collecting the medication from a local pharmacy means faster care.

She pointed to other research showing that widening access to MS-2 Step is safe and that expanding access to the medical abortion pill reduces the need for surgical abortion. She noted that in some European countries medical abortion accounts for more than 90% of all abortions, with Australia appearing to move the same way as medication abortion rises. The researchers said the findings suggest deregulation of abortion promotes safer and faster healthcare.

Second pill approved, rural gaps remain

MS-2 Step, available under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, combines mifepristone and misoprostol and can be taken up to 63 days of gestation. It was the only abortion pill available during the study, but in February the TGA approved a second drug, Arzestra, containing the same two medicines.

Dr Anna Noonan, a postdoctoral research fellow and abortion researcher at the University of Technology Sydney, said the data should signal to countries with tighter prescribing rules, such as the US, that overregulation is not the way forward. Overregulation, she said, creates extra work for those providing timely care and does not serve the interests of people seeking care.

Rural and regional access still needs improving, she said, and her own research has found local doctors, nurses and advocates quietly arranging pharmacy stocking in advance so people can find care confidentially and more easily. In her view, the more deregulated the environment becomes, the easier access will be, particularly for people with fewer resources.