9 FIRs lodged, 6 held as crackdown intensified

OFFICIALS: THESE KITS, SCHEDULE-H DRUGS, ARE BEING SOLD ONLINE WITHOUT VALID PRESCRIPTION FROM GYNAECOLOGISTS

- Pawan Sharma

CHANDIGARH: Nine first information reports (FIRs) registered, six people arrested, and four medical shops sealed—that's the scale of Haryana's state-wide crackdown on the illegal sale and online supply of medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) kits over the past fortnight.

An MTP kit is a single pack of five tablets (containing one tablet of mifepristone and four tablets misoprotol) and both of these drugs are Schedule-H drugs, which cannot be sold without a prescription from a registered medical practitioner (RMP). The MTP kit on its label/packing bears a warning "to be only used under the direct supervision of a gynaecologist".

A health official said online supply of MTP kits to the consumers is strictly illegal. These drugs are used in government hospitals and approved private facilities for terminating early medical pregnancies up to nine weeks, that too in accordance with the law. Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971/2021 allows abortions up to nine weeks using MTP kits, but only under the supervision of a registered gynaecologist in an approved MTP centre.

Raids conducted across multiple districts have so far led to the seizure of 19 MTP kits (excluding kits received from online platforms), along with various unauthorised allopathic drugs and psychotropic substances.