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Pro-life groups rally to attend telemedicine abortion meeting
Pro-life groups are rallying to attend a meeting Friday in which the Iowa Board of Medicine plans to discuss the use of telemedicine.
Operation Rescue and other organizations also invited Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, Attorney General candidate Brenna Findley, Lt. Gov. candidate Kim Reynolds and others to a town hall meeting afterwards at the Downtown Church in Des Moines.
The groups oppose using telemedicine for the “abortion pill” RU-486, calling the use “dangerous push-button abortions.”
Doctors use a remote camera and special pill dispenser to prescribe the drug, also known as mifepristone, for patients in rural areas.
Iowa is the first state to offer the service through Des Moines-based Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.
Proponents note that women typically take the drug at home, so the method is no different from having a doctor prescribe in person.
The pro-life groups, however, say that the drug is dispensed without the patient being examined by the doctor sitting on the other end of the Internet connection.
Mark Bowden, executive director of the Board of Medicine, said telemedicine will be discussed at Friday's meeting, but a public hearing is not planned.
The board meets at the Quality Inns and Suites Convention Center in Des Moines beginning at 8:30 a.m. Friday.
Bowden, a past editor of The Gazette, said findings from an ad hoc committee on telemedicine will be presented. Members of the public are allowed to speak.
The board will not discuss specific cases or complaints about the use of telemedicine, which has become a common tool to facilitate the practice of medicine, he said.
Bowden cited the use of telemedicine in reading X-rays and pathology reports, prescribing medicine and other applications in which doctors use the Internet, rather than a face-to-face visit with a patient.
The board could choose to do nothing, ask for more information, or may ask staff to develop proposed legislation or an administrative rule, he said.
CEO Joe Lock said Planned Parenthood of East Central Iowa does not offer RU486 by telemedicine at its Cedar Rapids site.
“It's not in our plans right now,” he said.
This Sept. 22, 2010 photo shows a telemedicine terminal in Des Moines, Iowa, from which Planned Parenthood of the Heartland clinic doctors can remotely prescribe the abortion-inducing drug RU-486, seen in the open drawer. Ten years ago, on Sept. 28, 2000, after long and bitter debate, the Food and Drug Administration approved use of the abortion pill by American women. It is hailed as safe and effective, but new turmoil may lie ahead as the pill's proponents consider using telemedicine to make it more available. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
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