{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,15]],"date-time":"2026-05-15T19:27:54Z","timestamp":1778873274605,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":21,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,8]],"date-time":"2020-01-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1578441600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/termsAndConditions#vor"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Aust NZ J Obst Gynaeco"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,6]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Background<\/jats:title><jats:p>Women face challenges when accessing abortion, including varied legislation and reduced access to services in rural and remote settings. There are limited clinical guidelines in Australia and little information regarding the patient journey, particularly the timeframe between referral to abortion procedure. Legislation reform in the Northern Territory (NT) legalised early medical abortion (EMA) in primary health care, providing an opportunity to review service provision of elective surgical abortion prior to and after these changes.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Aims<\/jats:title><jats:p>To review the waiting time to access abortion, percentage eligible for EMA based on ultrasound gestation alone, percentage of Indigenous women accessing abortion in the NT and the effects of the legislation change.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Materials and Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>Retrospective audit\u2010analysed surgical abortion data from 354 patient files who underwent suction curettage of uterus between 2012\u20132017 in one NT public hospital.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Mean wait\u2010time ranged from 20 to 22\u00a0days in 2012\u20132016 and dropped to 15\u00a0days in 2017 following the law reform. Sixty\u2010two percent of women waited longer than that in the recommended clinical guidelines. Indigenous women represented approximately 25% of patients accessing surgical abortion services. Average gestation at surgical abortion procedure increased following reform. Prior to reform up to 95% of patients accessing surgical abortion would have been eligible for EMA at time of referral.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title><jats:p>Results demonstrate potential for changes in service provision of abortion in the NT with increased choice, patient\u2010centred care and reduced waiting times. This audit demonstrated the possibility to move the majority of abortion services into primary health care leading to cost savings.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1111\/ajo.13117","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,9]],"date-time":"2020-01-09T01:38:20Z","timestamp":1578533900000},"page":"459-464","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Impact of legislative change on waiting time for women accessing surgical abortion services in a rural hospital in the Northern Territory"],"prefix":"10.1111","volume":"60","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3418-2298","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Suzanne","family":"Belton","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Global and Tropical Health Menzies School of Health Research Darwin Northern Territory Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Georgia","family":"McQueen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Medicine and public Health Flinders University Darwin Northern Territory Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8315-8799","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Edwina","family":"Ali","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Medicine and public Health Flinders University Darwin Northern Territory Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_6_2_1","first-page":"3538","article-title":"Barriers around access to abortion experienced by rural women in New South Wales, Australia","volume":"16","author":"Doran FM","year":"2016","journal-title":"Rural Remote Health"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/ajo.12298"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/1742-4755-7-19"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_5_1","volume-title":"Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion Evidence\u2010based Clinical Guideline No.7","author":"Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists","year":"2011"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_6_1","volume-title":"Termination of pregnancy in Maternal and Neonatal. 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Is medical abortion over\u2010regulated?","volume":"24","author":"O'Rourke A","year":"2016","journal-title":"J Law Med"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_17_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5694\/j.1326-5377.2010.tb03736.x"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_18_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rhm.2015.10.002"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_19_1","unstructured":"Guttmacher Institute.Induced abortion worldwide. March 2018. Available from URLhttps:\/\/www.guttmacher.org\/fact-sheet\/induced-abortion-worldwide"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_20_1","volume-title":". Pregnancy Outcome in South Australia 2016","author":"Pregnancy Outcome Unit, Prevention and Population Health Branch, SA Health, Government of South Australia","year":"2018"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_21_1","volume-title":"WHO Guidelines Approved by the Guidelines Review Committee, in Safe Abortion: Technical and Policy Guidance for Health Systems","author":"World Health Organization","year":"2012"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_22_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-842X.1999.tb01310.x"}],"container-title":["Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1111\/ajo.13117","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1111\/ajo.13117","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1111\/ajo.13117","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2023,9,6]],"date-time":"2023-09-06T02:31:34Z","timestamp":1693967494000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/ajo.13117"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,8]]},"references-count":21,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,6]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1111\/ajo.13117"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/ajo.13117","archive":["Portico"],"relation":{},"ISSN":["0004-8666","1479-828X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0004-8666","type":"print"},{"value":"1479-828X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,8]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2019-02-28","order":0,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2019-12-10","order":1,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2020-01-08","order":2,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}]}}