Ohio Legislator Files New Bill to Prevent Telemedicine Abortions

Ohio has joined the growing ranks of states debating the legality of telemedicine abortions.

Republican State Sen. Stephen A. Huffman recently introduced SB 260, which aims to prevent healthcare providers from using telemedicine to deliver abortion-inducing drugs. If passed, Ohio would join roughly 18 states in taking telehealth out of the highly charged abortion debate.

Huffman’s 69-page bill mirrors an effort by Pennsylvania lawmakers – as well as three bills filed in Congress – to ban telemedicine abortions. All cite the US Food and Drug Administration’s Risk Evaluations and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) protocol, which requires that drugs determined to be risky (like the abortion-causing drug Mifepristone, or Mifeprex) be dispensed in a healthcare setting under the direct supervision of the care provider, and that patients be advised of the drug’s dangers.

“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.”

Huffman’s bill has the support of Ohio Right to Life, which is lobbying against the “dangerous practice of providing a risky medication to a woman without the physician actually being present.” Supporters have called the process “at-home abortions.”

Those opposing the measure include Planned Parenthood.

Last August, the organization unveiled the results of a study showing that the service is as safe as an abortion conducted by a doctor in a clinic.

“As access to abortion shrinks across the country, telemedicine is one strategy for expanding patients’ access to safe, legal abortion, including for those living in remote or rural areas,” Dr. Julia Kohn, lead author of the study and the national director of research, evaluation and data analytics for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a press release.

“This study confirms what we know firsthand: Telemedicine can improve health equity by ensuring that more people have access to the care they need - including abortion - in a timely manner by reducing the barriers that make it harder for people to get care, including securing transportation, childcare and time off work,” she added.