Coming soon (already here?): Taxpayer funded telemed abortion systems
The New York Times reported on June 8:
So far only Planned Parenthood clinics in IA use this [RU-486 telemed abortion] method, but around the country, abortion providers have begun asking how they might replicate the concept.
I don’t necessarily believe it’s true that RU-486 telemed abortions are confined to IA at this point. Adding fuel to my fire is the article below that Pro-Life WI has dug up, posted by The Business Journal of Milwaukee on July 10, 2009….
Takeaways: The telemedicine system has been in place at WI Planned Parenthoods and paid for with tax dollars for 2 years, the same length of time PP of the Heartland has been committing telemed abortions.
Wide scale PP collusion on telemed abortions for quite awhile is not only possible but probable. I expect many more PPs around the country have been girding for them with government grants, funding telemed systems under the guise of needing them to dispense birth control pills.
Furthermore, Teri Huyck, the new CEO of PP of WI, is definitely one not to be trusted if she says WI PPs haven’t started committing telemed abortions. Huyck was instrumental in the Aurora PP cover-up.
Here are key excerpts from that BJM story:
Since there aren’t enough primary care physicians or nurse practitioners to get to all of the patients, Planned Parenthood of WI is bringing the patients to them.
The organization, which provides health care to about 70k men and women a year at 28 clinics across the state, has begun investing in telemedicine, a high-tech way for the patient and clinician to communicate via video phone….
PP clinics, particularly those in rural areas, are often staffed by people who do not have a medical license. Those employees are not allowed to do patient assessments so patients are turned away if there isn’t a licensed clinician working that particular day.
Delaying a visit could result in a patient’s condition getting worse or a delay in getting birth control, which could result in an unintended pregnancy, Burnett said.
The video phones, which are the size of a laptop computer, are at 10 PP locations – Racine, Delavan, Waukesha, Fond du Lac, West Bend, Portage, 2 clinics in Madison and clinics in Milwaukee on Mitchell Street and WI Avenue….
The 10 locations were chosen because they are the organization’s Title 10 clinics, which means they receive funding from the federal government. PP’s other centers are either state-funded or self-sustaining.
A federal grant paid for the video phones, which cost $15,000 each, including the infrastructure needed to operate the phone.
The video phones are used by clinicians to do consultations with patients and to order medication. If a patient needs immediate medical attention and a clinician cannot get to them, they are referred to the emergency room, Burnett said….
PP of WI piloted the telemedicine program in March 2008 at 3 clinics….. The equipment for the pilot project was paid for with a grant from the Public Service Commission of WI.
PP is looking for additional grants to pay for phones in the remaining 18 clinics, since the clinician shortage is expected to worsen, Burnett said….
While there are no specific regulations with telemedicine,…
Pro-Life WI has confirmed there are no WI statutes in place that would prohibit the WI abortion industry from committing telemed abortions. Pro-Life WI is currently working with the Alliance Defense Fund to learn whether WI PPs are and have been committing telemed RU-486 abortions.
[Top photo via The New York Times; bottom photo via The Business Journal of Milwaukee]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Did you notice the hopeful line in that BJM story?:
“PP is looking for additional grants … since the clinician shortage is expected to worsen…”
Now, I hate the false efficiency of telemed abortions, birth control, etc., but there’s a limit to how many patients a clinician can see via telemed just as in person.
One question about telemed birth control: there are lots of different birth control pills. They have different dosages and different side effects. Assuming that Dr. Telephone can actually determine which pill would be best for the patient, how does he or she ensure that a patient is dispensed the right pill and/or takes the right quantities? Are there different drawers for each type of b/c? The Iowa long-distance abortions only seem to indicate one drawer.
Heck, some additional questions: Assuming that the pills dispensed are limited to the right type and quantity for the patient (not even PP would expect their patients to count out the exact 30 pills, right?), who restocks and what licensed physician/pharmacist/medical professional double-checks to make sure the correct medicine/dosage/number of pills is loaded? Birth control pills aren’t exactly a packet of Chicklets to be dropped out of a vending machine.
They will probably switch to ulipristal/ “ella” single-pill. It is supposed to have similar efficacy and side effects as levonorgestrel, withe greater efficacy rates at 5 days.
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AdvisoryCommittees/CommitteesMeetingMaterials/Drugs/ReproductiveHealthDrugsAdvisoryCommittee/UCM215425.pdf
page 45: this pill is an abortifacient.
FDA is aware of this, and is likely to regulate it as such.
PP-affiliated researchers have been involved in its development, and PP has been one of the research sites.
Generally, providers prefer generics if their clients do not have good health ins coverage. But sales of this “ella” drug may not be a problem for PP since it practically is their product.
They will potentially be the greatest user, as well as developer, of this drug here in U.S., so the ability of post-marketing surveillance to reveal long-term harms may be compromised.
There is not yet data, apparently, on outcomes for the baby if this drug is taken while there actually is a pregnancy, and the baby is not aborted, but is allowed to live. Surveillance is limited to those babies that were not otherwise aborted, which looks like a great portion, from this FDA info.
Part of the PP-related research has been with minors; it is not clear whether this is a case where PP involved minors in research but did not. properly, get minor assent with parental consent.
If there is an investigative journalist reading, I just pitched you a softball.
Jill,
I was talking with Steve Brody this afternoon about this. I agree, they may already be doing this in a place or 2 as a pilot project & getting ready to roll it out elsewhere.
This also raised another question in my mind as I was writing a post on this to publish on my blog Thursday. (So you are getting the preview) Telemed abortions, telemed contraception prescriptions, what’s next? Is this the wave of the future for other PP services to reduce costs by reducing staff & raise profits as a result?
“PP clinics, particularly those in rural areas, are often staffed by people who do not have a medical license.”
Isn’t that the very thing pro-aborts are dissing CPC’s for?