The practice of "telemedicine," or providing medical services over computer videoconferencing, is gaining traction nationwide. In Iowa, over the protests of abortion opponents, Planned Parenthood is using the long-distance technology to help terminate pregnancies: A videoconferenced doctor releases a dose of the "abortion pill" mifepristone (formerly RU-486) to a patient following an in-person exam with a nurse at a remote clinic. Are pro-life groups right to attack the practice as unsafe? (Watch a local report about Iowa's abortion "telemedicine")
Abortionists have hit a new, dangerous low: How can this "novel way to abort babies — by remote control" — be safe? asks Matthew Archbold in the National Catholic Register. When doctors remotely administer the abortion pill "with all the humanity of a Pez dispenser," who cares for the woman if something goes wrong? No one. This is a "dehumanizing," desperate, and ill-advised answer to the shrinking number of abortion doctors.
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