State Investigating Dangerous Telemed Abortions at Planned Parenthood Centers
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 4, 2010
Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) — The state of Iowa has announced it has begun an investigation into the new "telemed" process Planned Parenthood is using to dispense abortion drugs. The process has abortion practitioners instruct women on using the dangerous abortion drug by video conference instead of assisting them in person.
The practice involves the dangerous RU 486, or mifepristone, abortion drug that has killed at least 13 women worldwide and injured 1,100 in the U.S, alone as of 2006 FDA figures.
As LifeNews.com, has reported, Operation Rescue officials have exposed the new process practice, which it says is putting women’s health at risk and involves the potential bilking of insurance companies.
Last month, the pro-life group filed formal complaints with the Medical Board of Iowa asking for an investigation into the process and asking officials to stop allowing abortions without a licensed physician on site and discipline those involved.
Today, OR announced the Iowa Medical Board is now investigating the "care and treatment" practices of abortion practitioner Susan Haskell and Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.
At least a dozen small Planned Parenthood offices in Iowa were administering the dangerous abortion drug without the mother seeing a doctor in person. instead, Haskell briefly addresses abortion patients from a teleconferencing hook up from her office in Des Moines. After explaining the medical abortion process, a button is pushed and an electronic drawer opens that contains the drugs.
"We believe that this practice is illegal and violates Iowa law that requires that a licensed physician perform abortions in that state, and increases the serious dangers to the public," OR president Troy Newman told LifeNews.com Tuesday morning.
"The abortion pill has a failure rate of 7-20% depending on how it is administered, but with no licensed physician in sight, women are left in a condition that is considered life-threatening," he added.
Newman is also concerned because his group discovered that Planned Parenthood deviates from the FDA protocols in both dosage and number of recommended office visits.
The pro-life group also discovered that Planned Parenthood charges insurance companies $1,000 for the abortion drug procedure — twice the cost of the abortion and something Newman says will drive up insurance prices for all consumers.
"Planned Parenthood has come up with a dangerous scheme to peddle abortion pills to women without the cost of transporting a licensed physician to each clinic. Without enough abortionists to staff all of their clinics, this ‘telemed’ scheme is the goose that laid the golden egg for them," Newman said. "Never mind that it is a serious danger to women and to the economics of this country, especially if it expands nationally."
"We pray that the Iowa Board of Medicine will bring this outrageous abortion abuse to an end," he concluded.
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