Iowa Supreme Court Allows Telemedicine Abortion Program To Continue
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
The controversial move is likely to raise debate.
The Iowa Supreme Court has decided to allow the state’s three Planned Parenthood clinics to administer abortion medication via telemedicine, rejecting the state board of medicine’s 2013 ban that required doctors to see abortion patients in person, according to Reuters.
Iowa was the first state to use telemedicine for abortions and about 7,000 webcam abortions have been done in urban Iowa centers since 2008 according to the Washington Times. Minnesota is the only other state that permits it.
According to The Des Moines Register, the six justices released the unanimous decision stating the rule was a violation of the Iowa state constitution by placing an “undue burden” on women seeking abortions in the state. Iowa has only three Planned Parenthood clinics across the state resulting in many women having to travel hundreds of miles to visit a clinic in person.
Mhealth News reports the court concluded in its ruling that since Planned Parenthood has used telemedicine since 2008 to treat patients and given that Iowa allows telemedicine, there was not enough evidence to argue that it couldn’t be used by the organization. Planned Parenthood asserted the Iowa Board of Medicine had acted as a result of political motivations and it unfairly targeted the use of telemedicine for abortion. Justice David Wiggins, who wrote the court’s opinion, stated, “It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Board’s medical concerns about telemedicine are not selectively limited to abortion.”
Planned Parenthood says a trained staff member is with each patient during the procedure to monitor vital signs, collect a blood sample, and perform an ultrasound. The consulting physician, via telemedicine, reviews the patient’s information and then remotely unlocks the container with the abortion-inducing drugs.
Mark Bowden, Iowa Board of Medicine’s executive director told Reuters, “The board adopted the rule to address what it saw as the unsafe practice of medicine. The board did not adopt the rule to place an undue burden on women seeking to terminate their pregnancies.” Terry Branstad, Iowa Governor, said in a statement he was “extremely disappointed” with the court’s decision.
Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood celebrated the victory as one for women across the state. “A woman’s ability to make her own health care decisions, including the right to obtain an abortion, is a personal liberty guaranteed in our Iowa Constitution,” said Planned Parenthood of the Heartland CEO Suzanna de Baca in a statement. “We are pleased that the Iowa Supreme Court has upheld Iowa’s tradition of honoring those freedoms.”
Currently, 16 states mandate a physician be present when the drugs are administered. Telemedicine is being challenged by some states, like Texas, which recently tried to prevent doctors from making certain diagnoses and writing prescriptions for new patients via telemedicine, saying an initial face-to-face encounter is required.