Ohio Right to Life’s Telemedicine Abortion Ban Signed Into Law
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Allie Frazier
DATE: Saturday, January 9, 2021 PHONE: 614-547-0099 ext. 304
COLUMBUS, Ohio— Today, Governor Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 260, the Telemedicine Abortion Ban, into law. The Telemedicine Abortion Ban was spearheaded by Ohio Right to Life and sponsored by Senator Steve Huffman, a physician. This law will prohibit the use of telemedicine for the purpose of providing abortion-inducing drugs and ensure that those drugs could only be provided in-person by the prescribing physician.
The Telemedicine Abortion Ban was introduced in January of 2020. During opponent testimony on SB 260, it came to light that Planned Parenthood had been committing abortions in Ohio using a form of telemedicine for several years. The total number of telemedicine abortions committed in Ohio by Planned Parenthood remains unknown, as they have yet to make the current statistics public.
“Ohio Right to Life is immensely grateful to our governor and our pro-life legislature for their work in ensuring that this much-needed protection became a part of Ohio law,” said Gonidakis. “Although every chemical abortion is a tragedy than ends a baby’s life, this law helps prevent further loss of life by protecting women from an abortion industry which puts profits before safety. Planned Parenthood’s use of telemedicine to dispense abortion-inducing drugs cuts their own costs at the expense of basic health and safety standards. Patient safety shouldn’t have a price tag. Women deserve better.”
The first pill in the chemical abortion pill regimen, mifepristone, is highly regulated by the FDA due to safety concerns. The FDA recorded nearly 4,200 adverse events from mifepristone between 2012 and 2018 and over 1,000 of those cases required hospitalization. Since the abortion pill regimen was first introduced in the U.S. in 2000, 24 women have died from chemical abortion complications.
“The signing of the Telemedicine Abortion Ban into law is a victory for life and for women’s safety,” said Gonidakis. “No woman should be subjected to a dangerous telemedicine abortion in order to pad Planned Parenthood’s pockets. Pro-Life Ohio will not let the abortion industry continue to treat vulnerable women and children as money-making opportunities. Women and children deserve to be put first. This law is a crucial step towards that end.”
Ohio Right to Life thanks Governor DeWine and Senator Steve Huffman for their strong pro-life leadership.
To learn more about the Telemedicine Abortion Ban, click here.