Coronavirus mitigation in PA may include abortion expansion – unless we take action!

Mar 16, 2020 | 8 comments

Urgent Pro-Life Alert:
Please take 60 seconds and call your State Senator and ask them to keep a proposed telemedicine bill from expanding abortion in PA. 

“I urge the Senator to support Senate Bill 857 as amended and to do all they can to make sure this telemedicine bill is not used to expand abortion in Pennsylvania. Please ask the Senator to tell Leader Corman to keep the House language in Senate Bill 857 and pass this bill as amended.”

To contact your state senator: click here to use our web tool.

Right now, Governor Wolf is trying to “pull a Pelosi” by demanding the removal of the language added in the telemedicine bill – Senate Bill 857 – that would ban telemed abortions.

“Pull a Pelosi?”

It was reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was trying to ensure federal funding for abortion as part of the coronavirus economic stimulus plan.

As Senator Ben Sasse put it: “While schools are closing and hospitals are gearing up, Speaker Pelosi is waging unnecessary culture wars. Speaker Pelosi should be fighting the coronavirus pandemic, not politicizing emergency funding by fighting against the bipartisan Hyde Amendment…”

Now, this same type of backdoor strategy to expand abortion is being pushed here in PA with pro-abortion Governor Tom Wolf trying to “pull a Pelosi” here in our state.

Coronavirus Mitigation Effort

Today in Pennsylvania, pro-abortion Governor Wolf – a former Planned Parenthood escort who is right now trying to give $3 million of our taxdollars to Planned Parenthood (and that’s another problem that needs to be discussed another day) – is threatening to veto an important telemedicine bill that would aid in the coronavirus crisis unless it is stripped of the language preventing the expansion of abortion by permitting telemed abortions.

At least four Planned Parenthood abortion clinics in PA have already indicated that they would pursue telemed abortions – often called webcam abortions – unless they are prevented from doing so with the currently amended telemedicine bill – Senate Bill 857.

What is telemedicine?

Our legislature defines “telemedicine” as the delivery of health care services provided through telemedicine technologies to a patient by a health care provider who is at a different location. It would mean using video conferencing, for instance, to deliver information to help health care workers like pharmacists, registered nurses or even dental hygienists.

What is a telemed abortion?

Abortion is not health care. Telemed abortions – or what may be called an abortion by video or webcam abortions – would be an abortion clinic dispensing abortion pills without a physician performing an in-person consultation and check up. That could look like:

  1. Girl skypes with Planned Parenthood.
  2. Planned Parenthood mails abortion pills to the girl.
  3. Girl takes abortion pills.
  4. Girl sends Planned Parenthood $400-$500.

This is a new strategy by Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry to perform more abortions.

Not only can this create more abortions but this practice of telemed abortions goes against FDA regulations for safety reasons. The FDA has flagged the abortion drug Mifeprex as a dangerous drug that must only be given after an in-person consultation with a medical professional.

With a telemed abortion, there are two major areas of added concern for women. First, it increases the chances of error in calculating the duration of the pregnancy. The margin of error is greater by just relying upon what a woman believes was her last menstrual period versus performing an in-person check-up and an ultrasound to confirm how far along she is in the pregnancy. There can be significant problems if the calculation of the length of the pregnancy is off.

Second, a telemed abortion also endangers women with ectopic pregnancies by delaying this diagnosis, which can lead to dangerous and perhaps even fatal results. 

Yet that’s exactly what Planned Parenthood wants to do in Pennsylvania – and will do if the telemedicine bill does not include the language banning telemed abortions.

What is Senate Bill 857?

Senate Bill 857 is a proposed bill dealing with expanding health care options especially to rural areas in PA by authorizing the regulation of telemedicine by professional licensing boards and providing for insurance coverage of telemedicine. It’s a bi-partisan bill that can help with providing resources to those helping to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus in PA.

Again, abortion is not health care and should not be a part of the discussion regarding the coronavirus and this telemedicine bill.

Take Action

Please call your State Senator today and share this request: “I urge the Senator to support Senate Bill 857 as amended and to do all they can to make sure this telemedicine bill is not used to expand abortion in Pennsylvania. Please ask the Senator to tell Leader Corman to keep the House language in Senate Bill 857 and pass this bill as amended.”  

Senate Bill 857 is currently in the Senate Rules Committee, which is why it is important to have your Senator connect with Senator Corman and those on the Rules Committee to make sure this language in the bill to ban telemed abortions remains in the full telemedicine bill.

To be clear, if our State Senate removes this pro-life language, they would be allowing a bill that, in practice, would go against FDA regulations by permitting abortion via telemedicine through this telemedicine bill.

We cannot allow this to happen in PA.

Thank you for taking 60 seconds to make this one call. If you have more time available, please share this news and help recruit more to call their State Senators with this urgent request.