On October 23, 2008, at Armenia-Marriott hotel Women’s Rights Center organized roundtable on the topic of “Expanding Access to Medical Abortion in Armenia”. Doctors from a number of medical centers, clinics and maternity homes were invited to participate in the round table. 
The meeting started with the opening speech of Susanna Vardanyan, project director who introduced the objectives of the project, activities within its framework and the agenda of the meeting. 
Afterwards, the floor was given to PhD, Dr. Gayane Avagyan, Leading Specialist of RA Ministry of Heath who presented the situation on abortion and possibilities of introduction of medical abortion in Armenia. She mentioned that presently mainly surgical abortion services were available in the country and the abortion rate remained high at 2.6 abortions per woman. A remark was made on wide range of obstetrics services available and many women living in rural areas were also able to access safe abortion services. Main advantages of medical abortion (use of 800 µg buccal misoprostol following 200 mg mifepristone) were also outlined: particularly, that it is simple to use and it is approximately 95% effective. Medical abortion could also improve the quality of reproductive health care by providing a solid alternative for women who tend to avoid surgery. Ms. Avagyan mentioned about two surveys that were conducted among women and doctors in 2007. The surveys revealed that a number of doctors reported being “very experienced” in medical abortion using misoprostol method alone, rather than mifepristone together with misoprostol. The survey for women revealed that even though medical abortion services are not yet available in the country, 59% of women reported having heard of the method (but most had incorrect knowledge).
Ms. Armine Harutunyan, research coordinator from Center of Family Planning and Sexual Health presented the results of introduction of medical abortion in their Center. She stated that overall procedure of implementing the research is running good and they are happy to register positive outputs. According to the projects activities, it was planned for each investigator’s group to implement the method among 150 women during one year. Mainly, the cases of usage of this new method succeeded, though there were several cases with complications and one case when a woman refused to receive medicines second time and expressed her willingness to apply for induced surgical abortion.
In the second part of the round table participants went into thorough discussions analyzing
• the present situation of artificial abortion in country,
• various methods of its implementation,
• preferences of doctors to use certain methods,
• possibilities of medical abortion to be carried out by gynecologists,
• the accessibility of medicines in pharmacies,
• lack of relevant culture among both doctors and patients,
• imperfect legal system, use of contraceptives, etc.

As a result of discussions participants outlined main difficulties to be surmounted:
• doctors might not be interested in propagating medical abortion method,
• medicines in pharmacies should not be easily accessible to women, they should be sold only in case of presenting doctor’s prescription,
• the legal system should be formed accordingly,
• there is a need to shape relevant culture within the society and doctors to ensure safe abortion.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Ms. Vardanyan summarized opinions shared during the event and thanked participants for their presence and interesting discussion.
After the round table it was decided to consider the recommendations suggested by the participants and to include them in the following stages of project objectives for further implementation.

The round table was held within the project of "Feasibility and Acceptability of Expanding Abortion Services in Armenia" supported by Gynuity Health Projects.