A controversy is brewing over how the RU-486 pill is dispensed in Iowa after Planned Parenthood started using technology to allow doctors to hand out the pills using telemedicine.
UPDATE 9/17/10: Telemed a boon to mass slaughter of unborn
UPDATE 6/8/10: Abortion Drugs Given in Iowa via Video Link by Monica Davey, New York Times
Efforts to provide medical services by videoconference, a notion known as telemedicine, are expanding into all sorts of realms, but these clinics in Iowa are the first in the nation, and so far the only ones, experts say, to provide abortions this way.
Advocates say the idea offers an answer to an essential struggle that has long troubled those who favor abortion rights: How to make abortions available in far-flung, rural places and communities where abortion providers are unable or unwilling to travel. So far only Planned Parenthood clinics in Iowa use this method, but around the country, abortion providers have begun asking how they might replicate the concept.
For some, however, the program tests the already complicated bounds of telemedicine. Abortion opponents say they are alarmed, fearful for the safety of women who undergo abortions after consulting with doctors who have never actually been in the same room with them. Opponents filed a complaint this spring with the Iowa Board of Medicine, arguing that a doctor’s remote clicking of a mouse hardly meets the state’s law requiring licensed physicians to perform abortions, and more objections are coming.
Though the efforts drew little attention until recently, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (which recently combined affiliate operations in Nebraska with those in Iowa) has dispensed abortion medication using teleconferencing equipment at 16 Iowa clinics since June 2008; 1,500 such abortions have been performed in this state.
The total number of abortions nationally has declined in recent years, but the percentage of women opting for abortions by medication — as opposed to the more common surgical alternative — is growing.
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From "Planned Parenthood Uses Telemedicine To Dispense Pills" KCCI-TV8 Des Moines, IA 5/17/10
Iowa is [currently] the only state in the country where Planned Parenthood of the Heartland is administering RU-486 pills using a remote camera and special pill dispenser to patients at rural clinics.
RU-486, also known as Mifeprex, is a synthetic steroid that is used to prevent or end pregnancy in the first two months after conception, and is commonly referred to as the "abortion pill."
The new telemedicine technique allows a doctor to talk to and dispense the pills to a patient in a remote office location using a camera and microphone connected to the Internet, which allows for two-way communication. Officials said the patient is counseled by on-site staff before connecting to talk to the doctor who is at a different location.
After talking to the patient, the doctor can then tap a button on the computer to activate a special drawer at the patient's location that will open and allow the patient to receive the pills. The patient then takes the first pills while the doctor watches.
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From "Planned Parenthood Reveals 5-Year Plan to Expand Abortion through Telemed Scheme" LifeSiteNews.com 5/25/10
Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) revealed last week that expanding medical abortions into every Planned Parenthood clinic in the country through the use of a "telemed abortion" scheme is part of PPFA's Strategic Plan for 2015.
The plan was revealed after a protest of Planned Parenthood organized by the Pro-Life Action League. Between 150 and 200 pro-lifers braved the cold and rain to protest a Planned Parenthood fund-raising banquet in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the wake of the "telemed abortion" scandal in that state.
"If this push-button abortion scheme is allowed to spread, it will only increase the number of abortions at a time when abortion rates are falling and abortion clinics are closing," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "Not only will more babies die, but women will be placed in increased danger of serious medical complications or death, with no real emergency plan other than to make patients fend for themselves at whatever emergency room they can find."
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