Telemedicine and Abortion: A Natural Friendship?

Telemedicine has been used to improve access to care in many realms of medicine for years, particularly in rural settings. Since early medical abortion is a safe, highly effective, outpatient process that involves only pills, it is ideally suited to telemedicine. However, as telemedicine has expanded generally, legislators have specifically restricted telemedicine abortion care. The most common restrictions require these medications to be administered directly by a physician, or to be provided physically in a clinic (despite there being no evidence to support that this is safer or beneficial).

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine has taken on a greater role in our healthcare system. This surge of telemedicine care has provided new potential for telemedicine abortion care, but not without a fight. Read more here:

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For the basics of telemedicine and how it can work in abortion care:

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Evidence to support what we know: people appreciate access and options: 

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And then COVID-19 hits…

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A call from the professional Obstetrics and Gynecology community for telemedicine abortion access: 

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For more scholarly articles on telemedicine abortion and COVID-19:

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For a list of projects, papers, and policy briefs related to improving telemedicine abortion care:

To learn about some ongoing studies assessing the impact of telemedicine on abortion:

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And then a final hit to abortion access under the Trump Administration: