Investigating Optimal Pain Control for Medication Abortion Patients. Pain is often cited as one of the worst features of medication abortion, yet little is known about optimal pain management during the medication abortion process. Optimal pain management is important not only to improve quality of care for people undergoing medication abortion, but also to limit unnecessary clinical care visits that may result from inadequate pain management. ANSIRH is collaborating with researchers at the World Health Organization and in three countries, Nepal, Vietnam, and South Africa, to complete a randomized, placebo-controlled trial to identify effective methods for medication abortion pain control.