Regier calls for banning abortions by telemedicine
Rep. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell is sponsoring a bill in the current legislature that would ban and make it a crime for medical practitioners to administer pregnancy-ending medication through telemedicine.
“If you care about patient care, you’d want to have a practitioner there,” he said, “instead of prescribing a chemical abortion over the airwaves.”
Regier said he wants to be proactive with requiring that a doctor is present when a pregnant woman takes any abortion-inducing medication. Similar bills have passed in about 16 states. Telemedicine abortion services are not currently available in Montana.
House Bill 587 was scheduled for a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on March 6.
Under the proposed bill, a doctor or other practitioner licensed to perform abortions or prescribe, administer or dispense a drug or device that causes abortion could be fined and/or jailed if they are not physically present when providing these services. While the first offense is a misdemeanor, the second offense would be classified as a felony with a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a fine of $1,000.
Martha Stahl, president of Planned Parenthood of Montana, opposes HB 587. She said the actual goal of the bill is to restrict abortions in a large state where telemedicine could increase patient access.
“The reality is a woman is not in the same room with a doctor when an abortion takes place for over a decade now,” she said.
Typically, abortions conducted through medication involve a visit with a practitioner during which the first of two doses of medication are taken to induce an abortion. A woman then takes the second dose within about 48 hours at home, Stahl said. She said studies show complications associated with the procedure are rare.
“Legislators should leave it to medical professionals to determine whether this is a good thing to do through telemedicine,” she said.
According to data from the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, 1,842 induced abortions were performed in Montana in 2013. Since the state began compiling data in 1975, the number has been as high as 4,175 in 1982.
Another abortion-related measure passed in the House Judiciary Committee by 11-10 on Feb. 17. House Bill 425, sponsored by Rep. Matthew Monforton, R-Bozeman, calls for amending the state constitution to define human life as beginning at conception. Two-thirds of lawmakers must support the bill for it to be placed on the November 2016 ballot. Three similar efforts have failed in the Legislature in the past.
A third abortion-related bill, Senate Bill 349, sponsored by Sen. Cary Smith, R-Billings, passed the Senate by 29-21 on a third reading on Feb. 26 and is headed to the House. SB 349 would require companies offering health insurance in Montana to sell a plan that does not include abortion services.