An Iowa study finds that online abortions conducted over the internet being offered online by Planned Parenthood are safe and effective with outcomes identical to face-to-face doctor visits.
In yet just another sign of the times, an Iowa study has found that online abortions conducted over the internet with doctor supervision as just as effective as face-to-face visits with your local abortion doctor.
According to an MSNBC report most patients prefer not to have a doctor in the room and the new online abortion model being offered by Planned Parenthood offers a promising new abortion model – point, click and abort!!!
Abortions via ‘telemedicine’ are safe, effective, Iowa study finds
By Linda Carroll – msnbc.com contributor
7/20/2011 5:13:26 PM ET
A controversial abortion method that lets a woman terminate a pregnancy via so-called “telemedicine” is just as effective and acceptable to patients as a face-to-face office visit, a new study finds.
Three-quarters of patients who choose that option said they did not prefer having the doctor in the room during the procedure that allows physicians to remotely supervise administration of the pregnancy-ending drug RU-486.
Ninety-four percent of the women who chose telemedicine reported that they were “very satisfied” with the procedure, and researchers found that women who received “virtual” counseling had no more complications than those who had office visits, according to the new report published in the latest edition of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.
“I think that our study shows that the telemedicine model is being provided quite safely in Iowa, with identical outcomes as face-to-face visits,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Daniel Grossman, an assistant clinical professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, San Francisco, and a senior associate with Ibis Reproductive Health, a non-profit research organization based in Oakland, Calif.
“Also, this is something women really like,” he added.
The report is among the first to study the effects of telemedicine abortions, which have been increasing even as they’ve been banned by new laws passed in at least five states.
Grossman and his colleagues followed 578 Iowa women who came to Planned Parenthood clinics seeking to terminate a pregnancy with RU-486: 223 of the patients signed up for counseling via telemedicine while the other 226 opted for face-to-face visits. An Iowa clinic network, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, has offered some abortions via telemedicine since 2008 in order to expand the service to women earlier in pregnancy and to those who lived in rural areas without abortion providers.
Even though termination with RU-486 requires no surgery, most states require that a physician “provide” the medical abortion, which means that a doctor must personally counsel each patient before doling out medication. A small percentage of states allow the medication to be dispensed by nurse practitioners and other health mid-level providers.
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