Planned Parenthood Expands Telehealth, Supports Telemedicine Abortions

With the Coronavirus pandemic throwing up new barriers to access to sexual and reproductive care for women, Planned Parenthood is going on the offensive.

The national organization announced this week that it will expand its telehealth platform to all 50 states by the end of April, and will be adding mHealth resources specific to the virus.

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“Sexual health needs don’t go away, even when our country is in crisis,” Alexis McGill Johnson, acting president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood federation of America, said in a press release. “We know this pandemic has increased barriers to health care for many of the communities we serve — at exactly the time when people need that care the most. Through telehealth, Planned Parenthood is providing the high-quality care and information people need to stay safe and healthy, even as our everyday reality is rapidly changing.”

At the same time, the organization is embroiled in a battle in several states where lawmakers have sought to block abortions, including those conducted via telemedicine. Those lawmakers have argued that abortions aren’t considered necessary medical services and shouldn’t be allowed while the nation is focused on fighting the pandemic.

This week, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Patty Murray (D-WA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) jumped into the fray with a letter to the US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn, MD. The lawmakers are urging Hahn to relax restrictions on the use of Mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortions, which can be conducted via telehealth.

The drug was approved for use in 2000, but shortly afterward was placed on the FDA’s Risk Evaluations and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) protocol, which requires that drugs determined to be risky be dispensed in a healthcare setting under the direct supervision of a certified care provider, and that patients be advised of the drug’s dangers.

Anti-abortion activists have also seized on the FDA’s REMS protocol in efforts to ban telemedicine abortions. In January, Ohio State Senator Stephen A. Huffman introduced a bill that aims to prevent the use of Mifepristone because of its supposed dangers. A bill in Pennsylvania and three filed in Congress are seeking the same goal.

“This legislation is vital for patient safety,” Huffman said in a statement distributed to local news outlets. “While it’s too late for the unborn baby, who will undoubtedly lose her life, physicians should never take this procedure so lightly as to fail to even be present when administering a drug that is known to have such serious side effects. It is a doctor’s duty to ensure that patients are not exposed to greater risk by recklessly dispensing drugs that are known to have life-threatening consequences.”

Senators Warren, Murry and Baldwin see things differently.

“Significant scientific evidence, research, and clinical experience has affirmed that medication abortion is safe and highly effective,” they wrote. “Since 2000, over four million people in the United States have used mifepristone, and the adverse events reporting rate has been extremely low.”

“The medical community resoundingly agrees that any restrictions placed on the prescription and distribution of mifepristone are medically unnecessary,” they added, citing opinions from former FDA Commissioner Jane E. Emery and researchers at the University of California at San Francisco.

While arguing that medication abortions are safe, advocates are emphasizing the these procedures can and should be conducted via telehealth, since the ongoing public health emergency is preventing many women from accessing care at a clinic or hospital. In addition, medication abortions via connected health platforms reduce the risk of being infected with COVID-19.

“In practice, by applying the REMS at this time … FDA is forcing health care providers to choose between providing necessary health care to their patients and exposing themselves and their patients to additional risks,” Sens. Warren, Murray and Baldwin pointed out in their letter.

“FDA has recognized the importance of giving health care providers discretion in this area during the current public health emergency, and should consider providing similar flexibility here, rather than letting any ideological objection to abortion care prevent health care providers from offering the safest care options to their patients.”