Iowa and Telemed Chemical Abortions; Consequences for Wisconsin

All eyes are on Iowa. Not only is it one of the states where notorious late-term abortionist Leroy Carhart wants to move his grisly practice, but it is an experimental playground for Planned Parenthood and telemed abortions.

First, you need to know what a telemed or web-cam abortion is. The web-cam system allows an abortionist in a major city to “counsel” a woman diagnosed as pregnant in another part of the state about an abortion over a circuit video system. After the “counseling” is completed, the abortionist then releases, via remote control, a drawer containing abortion pills at her location. She is not physically seen by the doctor.

The drugs used are the RU 486 abortion pill and a prostaglandin. This dangerous two-drug procedure comes with significant risks and side effects.

Planned Parenthood has “tested” this procedure on over 2,000 women in Iowa with plans to spread it nationwide. An official complaint was registered in Iowa that the law was being violated but the Iowa Board of Medicine recently decided not to discipline the abortionist performing web-cam abortions.

What does this mean for Wisconsin? We already know that Planned Parenthood owns telemed machines. We also know that RU 486 chemical abortions jumped from 19% of all Wisconsin abortions in 2008 to 27% in 2009. We are not yet able to connect the dots and say definitively that Planned Parenthood of is doing telemed abortions in Wisconsin. Nonetheless, Wisconsin Right to Life intends to pursue a legal prohibition of telemed abortions here.

Barbara Lyons