Specifically, the National Health System (SNS) includes in its service portfolio the ring with the active ingredients Etinilestradiol (3,474 mg) and Etonogestrel (11 mg).
Currently, public health already finances other contraceptives authorized in Spain. Thus, several contraceptives that are administered orally, combined hormonal and progestin-based are included in the pharmaceutical portfolio. Different long-term reversible contraceptives, known as LARC, are also funded, such as three types of intrauterine devices (IUDs), injectable Medroxyprogesterone and Etonogestrel implant.
The SNS finances a total of 14 presentations of last generation contraceptives, also called fourth generation because they have been developed to achieve, in addition to their contraceptive efficacy, beneficial non-contraceptive effects. Its main characteristic is antiandrogenicity.
The inclusion of new state-of-the-art contraceptives in the service portfolio contributes to compliance with the Law on Sexual and Reproductive Health and the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy (2010). It states that public health services will guarantee, among others, universal access to effective clinical practices for reproduction planning.
Sexual and reproductive education
The Law also establishes the need for adequate sexual and reproductive education as the most effective way to prevent, especially in young people, sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies and abortions. Thus, it includes the inclusion of sexual and reproductive affective education in the formal contents of the educational system.
To this end, the Ministry of Health, Consumption and Social Welfare and that of Education and Vocational Training have formalized an agreement to promote the promotion and education for sexual and reproductive health, among others. Both ministries will coordinate the development of different transversal and effective initiatives of affective-sexual education in the school environment.
In this way, the Ministry goes one step further in the reactivation of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy in the SNS that, until last year, was inactive.
Voluntary Pregnancy Interruptions
On the other hand, the Ministry has published today the latest data on voluntary terminations of pregnancy. Throughout 2018, a total of 95,917 women were aborted (11.12 per 1,000 women). This represents an increase of 1.91% compared to 2017. In statistical terms, this implies a tendency towards stabilization.
In 2010, the last year with the regulation of prior abortion (until July of that year the term law did not enter into force), 113,031 voluntary interruptions of pregnancy were registered, with a rate of 11.49 per 1,000 women.
The decline is visibly prominent if it goes back to 2008, when there were 115,812 abortions (11.78 per 1,000).
In the group of women under 20 years of age there has also been a stagnation, with 9,828 interruptions, 73 more than in 2017. They represent 10.25% of total abortions and the majority (65.37%) terminate their pregnancy before of week 8 of gestation.
The abortion rate performed in this age range (8.96 per 1,000) shows a decrease until 2016. In 2010, it was significantly higher, from 12.71 per 1,000.
On the other hand, the number of abortions in public centers continues to increase. Last year, 13.95% of the interruptions took place in public centers, compared to 1.84% in 2010.
Ministry of Health, Consumption and Welfare