Incorrect knowledge of laws may affect how women enter the health system or seek services, and it likely contributes to the disconnect between official laws and practical applications of the laws that influence women’s access to safe, legal abortion services. To provide a synthesis of evidence of women’s awareness and knowledge of the legal status of abortion in their country, and the accuracy of women’s knowledge on specific legal grounds and restrictions outlined in a country’s abortion law. A systematic search was carried for articles published between 1980–2015. Quantitative, mixed-method data collection, and objectives related to women’s awareness or knowledge of the abortion law was included. Full texts were assessed, and data extraction done by a single reviewer. Final inclusion for analysis was assessed by two reviewers. The results were synthesised into tables, using narrative synthesis. Of the original 3,126 articles, and 16 hand searched citations, 24 studies were included for analysis. Women’s correct general awareness and knowledge of the legal status was less than 50% in nine studies. In six studies, knowledge of legalization/liberalisation ranged between 32.3% - 68.2%. Correct knowledge of abortion on the grounds of rape ranged from 12.8% – 98%, while in the case of incest, ranged from 9.8% - 64.5%. Abortion on the grounds of fetal impairment and gestational limits, varied widely from 7% - 94% and 0% - 89.5% respectively. This systematic review synthesizes literature on women’s awareness and knowledge of the abortion law in their own context. The findings show that correct general awareness and knowledge of the abortion law and legal grounds and restrictions amongst women was limited, even in countries where the laws were liberal. Thus, interventions to disseminate accurate information on the legal context are necessary.

Background: The role of community pharmacists has evolved beyond the dispensing of medicines. The aim of this scoping review was to describe the interventions that expand the pharmacist’s scope of practice within a community pharmacy setting and assess their effectiveness. Methods: We performed a scoping review to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs), published worldwide from 2013 to 2024, which focused on interventions designed to expand pharmacists’ scope of practice in the community. The review was undertaken in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews. To address the aim of this scoping review, the included RCTs were mapped to themes influenced by the Professional Practice Standards 2023 as developed by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia: medication management, collaborative care and medication adherence. Results: Twelve studies demonstrated the potential to expand community pharmacists’ scope of practice. Two RCTs resulted in no effect of the intervention. One RCT (conducted in Italy) led to an actual change to community pharmacists’ scope of practice, with a statistically significant improvement in the proportion of patients with controlled asthma. Conclusions: On the whole, this scoping review synthesised the findings of peer-reviewed RCT studies that revealed expanding community pharmacists’ scope of practice may result in improved patient outcomes, a reduced burden for the healthcare system, and greater productivity.

Limited research in high-income countries (HICs) examines adolescent abortion care-seeking pathways. This review aims to examine the pathways and experiences of adolescents when seeking abortion care, and service delivery processes in provision of such care. We undertook a systematic search of the literature to identify relevant studies in HICs (2000–2020). A directed content analysis of qualitative and quantitative studies was conducted. Findings were organised to one or more of three domains of an a priori conceptual framework: context, components of abortion care and access pathway. Thirty-five studies were included. Themes classified to the Context domain included adolescent-specific and restrictive abortion legislation, mostly focused on the United States. Components of abortion care themes included confidentiality, comprehensive care, and abortion procedure. Access pathway themes included delays to access, abortion procedure information, decision-making, clinic operation and environments, and financial and transportation barriers. This review highlights issues affecting access to abortion that are particularly salient for adolescents, including additional legal barriers and challenges receiving care due to their age. Opportunities to enhance abortion access include removing legal barriers, provision of comprehensive care, enhancing the quality of information, and harnessing innovative delivery approaches offered by medical abortion.

Introduction Improving access to effective contraception has the potential to reduce unintended pregnancy and abortion rates. Community pharmacists could play an expanded role in contraceptive counselling and referral to contraceptive prescribers particularly when women are already attending community pharmacy to obtain emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) or to have medical abortion (MA) medicines dispensed. The ALLIANCE trial aims to compare the subsequent uptake of effective contraception (hormonal or intrauterine) in women seeking ECP or MA medicines, who receive the ALLIANCE community pharmacy-based intervention with those who do not receive the intervention. Methods and analysis ALLIANCE is a stepped-wedge pragmatic cluster randomised trial in Australian community pharmacies. The ALLIANCE intervention involves community pharmacists delivering structured, patient-centred, effectiveness-based contraceptive counselling (and a referral to a contraceptive prescriber where appropriate) to women seeking either ECPs or to have MA medicines dispensed. Women participants will be recruited by participating pharmacists. A total of 37 pharmacies and 1554 participants will be recruited. Pharmacies commence in the control phase and are randomised to transition to the intervention phase at different time points (steps). The primary outcome is the self-reported use of effective contraception at 4 months; secondary outcomes include use of effective contraception and the rate of pregnancies or induced abortions at 12 months. A process and economic evaluation of the trial will also be undertaken. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval has been obtained from the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee (#34563). An explanatory statement will be provided and written consent will be obtained from all participants (pharmacy owner, pharmacist and women) before their commencement in the trial. Dissemination will occur through a knowledge exchange workshop, peer-reviewed journal publications, presentations, social media and conferences. Trial registration number ACTRN12622001024730.

Adolescents encounter greater barriers when accessing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services than adults. Community-based pharmacists are uniquely positioned to address this due to their accessibility and availability within urban and rural contexts. This systematic review aimed to examine adolescents’ experience and acceptability of contraception and abortion clinical and dispensing services in community pharmacy. Seven databases were systematically searched to identify original peer-reviewed studies from high-income countries, from 2000 to 2025, relating to adolescents, pharmacy, contraception and medication abortion. The search was conducted in June 2023 and updated in April 2025. This review is registered with Prospero (CRD42022298209). Thirty-four studies were included; the majority focused on the emergency contraceptive pill. Despite adolescents feeling that the pharmacy was an accessible and convenient source of SRH services and that pharmacists provided them with comprehensive information, adolescents experienced and feared embarrassment, judgement and stigma. Though this review identified community pharmacies as safe, accessible settings where adolescents can conveniently seek care, competency in adolescent-friendly care needs to be optimised, with greater focus on expanding pharmacists’ scope-of-practice. No funding was received for this study.

Sexual and reproductive health is an important aspect of a woman’s health and her ability to access safe, effective, affordable, and acceptable forms of fertility regulation, including contraception. This commentary piece introduces the barriers and facilitators to community pharmacists’ practising in sexual and reproductive health, and compares and contrasts interventions taking place internationally, compared to key clinical trials occurring in Australia on an expanded scope of community pharmacy practice, in prescribing the oral contraceptive pill (OCP). Modelling the practices already occurring in other high-income countries, Australia is striving to remove barriers and improve accessibility to contraceptive care, by enabling community pharmacists to prescribe contraception.