On Tuesday the Utah House of Representatives voted to approve HB 154, a bill which (as the Associated Press explained) “mainly promotes the use of telemedicine, a growing practice in which doctors use images and webcams to consult with patients, typically far away or in rural areas, and treat them.”
So why would pro-abortion Democrats howl? Because the measure also explicitly forbids abortionists from using telemedicine–meaning the abortionist is not in the presence of the pregnant woman–to prescribe chemically-induced abortions.
Typically in “webcam abortions, ” the abortionist is located back at a hub office and teleconferences with the woman at a smaller satellite office. He reviews her case, and asks a couple of questions. He then clicks a mouse, remotely unlocking a drawer at her location which contains the abortifacients.
Last week, pro-abortion Democrats objected, complaining that abortion had been “singled out” as the only “medical procedure” banned by HB 154.
At the time the AP’s Michelle Price reported that Rep. Ken Ivory, the bill’s sponsor, said abortion is different because it deals with the life of a mother and child.
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“If you’re going to have an abortion, you have to see a doctor,” Ivory told lawmakers. “You’re not going to have an abortion by email or by remote technology.”
Yesterday Rep. Ivory added, “I think it’s sad that something as simple as saying you should have personal contact with a doctor to terminate a life has garnered so much outrage.”
Price next editorialized that Rep. Ivory “then described in graphic terms the bleeding, contractions and other symptoms of the procedure, generally used in earliest weeks of pregnancy.”
By “graphic,” Price probably meant that Rep. Ivory merely described what can and does happen in a chemical (“RU-486”) abortion. They are extremely painful and often women have severe cramps and even worse bleeding.
Women using RU-486 (and a prostaglandin to induce contractions) have hemorrhaged and ruptured ectopic pregnancies, which these pills do not treat. They have also contracted rare but deadly infections.
Thousands of women have been injured and over a dozen women have died after taking these abortifacient drugs. And those numbers are as of 2011.
If the measure is passed and signed into law, Utah would become the 20th state to require abortionists to be physically present when prescribing chemical abortifacients.
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
