AUSTRALIAN women could get access to medical abortions over the phone without having to visit a doctor or clinic.

The Tabbot Foundation has been launched to provide Australia-wide telephone assessment for home abortions, using the abortion drug mifepristone or RU486.

After being approved over the phone, women would then be posted the drugs to take themselves at home.

“Home-based medical abortion improves the acceptability of medical abortion by allowing for greater privacy than in-clinic abortion and giving women greater control over the timing of the abortion,” the foundation’s website says.

In some states in Australia, women seeking a termination are required to undergo a psychological assessment, which would remain the case under the Tabbot scheme, but would also be done over the phone, Fairfax reports. The drugs cost $250.

“The expansion of access to medical terminations by telemedicine is particularly important to women living in rural and regional Australia,” the foundation says on its website.

“These women have to travel long distances or indeed travel interstate to undergo surgery or not had the option of surgery at all.

“Self-administration of the drugs is already common in France and the United States.”