Abortions by mail: How a Nagpur businessman is helping women across the world

A Nagpur-based businessman is helping women seeking abortions across the world–and he’s doing it through mail. Now under the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration scanner, Mohan Kale has been running a mail-ordered abortion service, where in, he mails medicines with terminate pregnancies to women across the world who are unable to avail it. According to a report in The Times of India, 44-year old Kale was influenced by Physician and abortion rights activist Rebecca Gomperts, who made headlines with her decision to set sail and provide abortions to women in countries where it is illegal. “As a man, I can’t give birth to a baby but I do have autonomy over my body. Why shouldn’t women?” the report quotes Kale as saying. According to the New York Times report, Kale and Gomperts met two years ago. At the time, Gomperts was looking for a new supplier in India. As a supplier, Kale’s job is simple: He is sent a prescription after a doctor approves an abortion request, and he sends the ‘kit’ to the women in need. Since the medicines are legal in India, they can be purchased with a prescription. [caption id=“attachment_1056523” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational Image. AFP[/caption] Kale forms part of a much bigger telemedicine service that Gomperts started in 2006. Five years before starting the telemedicine service, Gomperts “did some legal and medical research and concluded that in a Dutch-registered ship governed by Dutch law, she could sail into the harbor of a country where abortion is illegal, take women on board, bring them into international waters, give them the pills at sea and send them home to miscarry. Calling the effort Women on Waves, she chose Dublin as her first destination,” says the New York Times report. In places like Ireland, women made a beeline to seek appointments with Gomperts. Women on Waves has since transformed into an international telemedicine service, of which Kale forms a part. Kale sends around 2,000 kits each month — containing one mifepristone and four misoprostol tablets — to women who live in nations where abortion is either banned or restricted. These are two of the 1,500 compounds that Kale sells, generating an annual revenue of $4.5 million — but no profit with an option for patients to donate 90 euros. And the need is enormous. Nearly 40 percent of the world’s population lives in nations where abortion is banned or restricted making it a major health concern for women. The report in New York Times explains: “The World Health Organization estimated in 2008 that 21.6 million unsafe abortions took place that year worldwide, leading to about 47,000 deaths. To reduce that number, WHO put mifepristone and misoprostol on its Essential Medicines list.” But even as both Kale and Gompert walk a legal tight-rope, the service has enabled thousands of women across the globe to assert their reproductive rights and attain greater control of their bodies. New York Times cites a thank you note from one of the women, which sums it up: “I used your service a few months ago. Today I finally found out I was back to normal, whatever that really means, seems strange to say really, but I wanted to say a HUGE thank you.”