Smaluna Station offers accessible pregnancy tests and consultation for youth

Sexual health education NPO Pilcon reported that the number of consultation emails from teenagers they had received doubled during last year’s stay-at-home period. Many of those young women also have been facing unwanted pregnancies, and those who lack information and financial support are particularly vulnerable. Another pregnancy hotline, Micmie, has reported a high amount of SOS online chat messages from teenagers, accounting for 90% of all of their incoming communication.

Tackling teenage pregnancy

Smaluna Station, produced by Next Innovation Inc., is another support service with an online chat function. They have been receiving messages saying, “I may be pregnant. I feel distressed.” or “I took a pregnancy test, and it was positive. I don’t know what to do now.” The fear is that these women in trouble have no support system and are forced to face their pregnancy all by themselves. Moreover, the first visit to the OB-GYN after suspecting you are pregnant can cost from 5,000 yen to 10,000 yen on average, which typical Japanese health insurance does not cover.

Smaluna Station announced that they had launched a support service where female students under 25 can take a pregnancy test for 500 yen. The service also offers a free face-to-face consultation with a midwife. Depending on the patient’s situation, the midwife will refer her to the clinic in the building.

Connecting youth with professional support

Smaluma Station was established last month in Osaka to serve young people throughout the Kansai region. One of their goals is to support the many young women facing unwanted pregnancy by themselves partly due to difficult situations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Smaluna Station provides an in-person medical consultation service, as well as a chat tool through the popular free app LINE. An onsite midwife advises on menstruation, birth control and other issues around reproductive health.

In order to increase awareness and strengthen the service they provide, Smaluna Station also collaborates with Sakuma Clinic, a clinic that specializes in women’s reproductive health and gender identity. The clinic strives to help vulnerable young females through such initiatives as offering student discounts on morning-after pills.

By collaborating with the local community, Smaluna Station aims to widen the area it serves so that more young women who need medical, financial or emotional help can get access to it. Accessibility to female sexual and reproductive health and rights in Japan has a long way to go. However, the efforts of Smaluna Station show us that, through a combination of technology and local support, there is much the community can do.