WHAT’S NEXT: “TELEHEALTH” TO KILL

Jim Sedlak, American Life League

Planned Parenthood (PP) has been venturing into the telemedicine world for some time. Its Heartland affiliate in Nebraska and Iowa pioneered the development of telemedicine abortions in 2008. The procedure at that time required a woman to be in a PP medical facility in order to get, and take, the abortion pill after a web-cam consult with an abortionist perhaps hundreds of miles away. In 2014, Planned Parenthood Care was launched which allowed a person to talk to a PP clinician over the Internet from home.

That was expanded in 2015 to Planned Parenthood Direct, which allowed for consultation, getting a prescription, and ordering birth control pills, among other things— again, all from home.

In its 2018-2019 Annual Report, Planned Parenthood Federation of America stated it provided telemedicine abortions in 16 states and other telemedicine services in 17 states. With the recent coronavirus pandemic, Planned Parenthood has grown these services—which it now calls telehealth and expanded those services to all 50 states in 2020.

So, what is telehealth at Planned Parenthood?

PP says:

Telehealth services vary from health center to health center, but you may be able to get services such as birth control, STD testing and or treatment, genderaffirming hormone therapy, PEP, PrEP, and emergency contraception (the morningafter pill). Counseling or education information may also be available.

PP also says:

Many Planned Parenthood health centers offer medication abortion, also known as the abortion pill, through telehealth.” (Telehealth abortions are currently banned in 19 states.) “If so, during your telehealth visit, your nurse or doctor will give you all of the information you need to use the abortion pill at home. Then you’ll go to your local health center to pick up the medicines (SIC) you’ll need.

TIME.com ran a story in April 2020 about this escalating PP telehealth program. The lead paragraphs in the story focused on telehealth abortions. It presented this scenario that involved PP Hudson Peconic in New York State:

When an emergency responder in one of the New York counties hardest hit by COVID-19 recently found out she was pregnant, she decided that it wasn’t the right time to have a child. So between a busy schedule of helping patients, she made an appointment for Planned Parenthood’s new telehealth service, requested an abortion, and attended an initial counseling session—all while sitting in an ambulance. Once she completed her virtual visit through the organization’s app, the first responder’s ambulance swung by her local Planned Parenthood clinic so she could pick up the pills needed to end her pregnancy.

This woman, whose daily job is dedicated to saving lives, decided to kill her own child and PP happily provided her with the murder weapon. We know by the testimonies of hundreds of staff who have left PP that this emergency responder, once she called PP, was speaking with individuals who are trained to sell abortions. There was no real counseling or trying to solve any of her perceived reasons not to give birth to this already living human being.

The abortion industry calls this new strategy of pushing chemical abortions “at-home” abortions or “self-managed” abortions. These at-home abortions are not something simple— according to the National Institutes of Health: one out of five has adverse effects; one out of six involves hemorrhaging; and one out of 17 will require surgery to complete the abortion. They are often violent and can require immediate transport to an emergency room.9

Planned Parenthood must be stopped.

Jim Sedlak passed away in 2022. He is the former Executive Director of American Life League and founder of STOPP International.