ATLANTA — Telemedicine became a widely used service during the pandemic, but Georgia lawmakers want to return to requiring a woman to be present in person for abortion services.
Georgia’s Senate Committee on Health and Human Services voted 7-5 on Wednesday in favor of the “Women’s Health and Safety Law,” which would prevent abortion pills from being shipped after a telemedicine visit.
Early last year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration changed the requirements for receiving the pill in person. The change removed the requirement that the pill could only be dispensed at designated healthcare facilities and allowed certified medical facilities to dispense the pill through the mail.
Proposed Senate Bill 456 would require qualified physicians administering an abortion-inducing drug to personally examine the woman and perform an ultrasound and other “checklists,” including verifying the woman’s pregnancy and blood type.
The treating physician must also inform the patient that she “may see the remains of her unborn child in the process of completing the abortion,” the bill says.
A follow-up visit must also be scheduled within seven to 14 days of taking the pill to confirm the termination of pregnancy and to conduct further tests. The abortion pill Mifeprex can be taken up to the 10th week of pregnancy.
“The drugs should never be made available without the direct involvement and ongoing supervision of a health care worker,” said Republican Senator Bruce Thompson, the sponsor of the bill. “Delivering these drugs in the mail without the woman being properly screened causes undue harm to the woman.”
Thompson argued that in-person visits allow doctors to review a pregnancy, diagnose ectopic pregnancies, and perform surgery in the event of incomplete termination or severe bleeding. He added that sending the pills does not provide a chain of custody to ensure they are delivered to the intended recipient.
About 20 states, including Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, require the prescriber to be present when the pill is taken, banning telemedicine abortion.
During Wednesday’s hearing on the Georgia bill, there seemed to be a mixed reaction from female health professionals.
Some argued that shipping the abortion pill posed no risk to patients and that the bill represented an overstatement in the medical field, and others called shipping abortion pills without a physical exam “reckless.”
Opponents say the bill would limit access to health care for women, especially low-income women who may have trouble reaching a clinic.
“SB 456 was written by politicians — not doctors — and it’s about shaming people and blocking access to safe, legal medical options,” Staci Fox, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast, said in a statement. “This is nothing more than a performative law in the middle of an election year. Abortion has already been decided in the state of Georgia. There is no reason for our leaders to waste valuable time and tax dollars pushing this law forward.”
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 42% of all abortions in 2019 were premature, medicated abortions (performed at nine weeks or less).
Access to abortion overall has been targeted in several states to reduce the number of weeks during pregnancy that a woman can legally have an abortion.
Texas caused an outcry last year when it banned abortions for the past six weeks and the decision was effectively upheld by the Supreme Court. Tennessee’s 2020 six-week abortion ban and Georgia’s 2019 six-week abortion ban are currently pending appeals in federal court. The Alabama legislature is considering a six-week abortion ban in this session as the pending 2019 law to outright ban abortion in the state goes to court. Currently, abortions are legal for up to 20 weeks in Tennessee and Georgia and up to 22 weeks in Alabama.
Opponents of access to abortion argue that a fetal heartbeat is usually detected at six weeks, but many health experts have argued that the detection is electrical cell activity and not a heartbeat. Advocates for access to abortion argue that the six-week ban puts more women at risk because most women don’t know they’re pregnant after six weeks.
A recent lawsuit in Mississippi seeking to overturn the state’s 15-week ban on abortion (enacted in 2018) was met with the state’s motion to have Roe v. Wade — a 1973 Supreme Court decision protecting a woman’s choice to have an abortion. A decision from the US Supreme Court in this case is expected in June.