Texas Democrats Call for Safe, Accessible Abortion Care Through Telehealth

To counter the recent Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v Wade, a group of Texas Democrats wrote to the White House providing potential strategies for supporting medication-enabled abortions, including through telehealth.

The Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade led to increased restrictions on abortion care as it set off trigger laws in several states, including Texas, where abortion is now banned.  

Many people living in Texas will now have to resort to traveling out of state to obtain abortion care, the group of Texas Democrats and abortion rights organizations wrote in their letter to the Biden administration. However, this can raise several issues relating to finances, lodging, and transportation, meaning that many people cannot avail themselves of this option.

To counter this issue, the White House can implement several strategies to ensure access to medication abortions, that is, abortions induced by medications, within the state.

"These are legally viable strategies that we encourage the Administration to take immediately given the emergency that our community is facing, even though right-wing extremists and state officials will try to stop the Administration’s efforts," the letter states.

The first strategy proposed involves the declaration of a public health emergency aiming to support private providers who provide abortion care using telehealth. The White House should direct the Department of Health and Human Services to allow out-of-state prescribing of abortion medication and delivery of the medication to Texas residents.

"The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act allows state laws to be overridden if those laws impede people’s access to federally-approved medication," the letter notes. "This would protect private providers who wish to do the right thing and provide abortion health care to Texans in need."

The second strategy includes gathering a group of philanthropists, health leaders, lawyers, and communications experts to draw attention to and support organizations providing telehealth abortion access.

The third strategy is establishing a federal program through which providers who are federal employees or contractors and choose to volunteer their time can dispense abortion medication.

The fourth strategy involves using the federal government's "supremacy" with regard to state laws that do not allow access to FDA- approved pharmaceutical regulations, and the fifth and final strategy states that the White House should protect third-party groups in and outside of Texas from civil and criminal actions in cases where the patient sources abortion medications.

"…between now and the codification of the legal right to abortion care, we must do everything we can to take care of our communities who have lost freedom over their own bodies and health care decisions," the letter states.

The Biden administration has taken several actions to counter the Supreme Court ruling on Roe v Wade.

For example, in June, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra announced that the agency intends to increase access to abortion care. There are multiple ways in which HHS will do so, including improving medication abortion accessibility.

In July, the HHS Office of Civil Rights released a guidance statement on patient privacy and rights, supporting confidentiality in the wake of the Roe v Wade ruling.