By Dave Andrusko
Members of the Iowa Board of Medicine listen to speakers during their hearing on the Planned Parenthood video-conferencing abortion system Wednesday afternoon in the Wallace Building on the capitol grounds.
Mary Willie/Des Moines Register
Just before my family and I went on vacation, NRL News Today ran in-depth analysis of the controversy over so-called “web-cam” abortions in Iowa. (See “Iowa Board of Medicine considering new rules governing web-cam abortions”)
Tomorrow, Dr. Randall K. O’Bannon, the author of that analysis, will provide a full update on the great news that last week the Iowa Board of Medicine voted 8-2 to establish a standard of medical care which would prohibit web-cam abortion in the State of Iowa. The vote came Friday-two days after a contentious public hearing. The new rule is effective 35 days after its publication on October 2, according to Iowa Right to Life, NRLC’s state affiliate.
We will offer just a few highlights here.
The pro-life critique of web-cam abortions is that it is dangerous to mothers by the very nature of how they take place. The abortionist can be anywhere, except in the same room as the pregnant woman. Using a video-conferencing system, he clicks a computer mouse to remotely unlock a drawer with a dose of dangerous abortifacient pills for a woman he’s never personally examined at a location maybe hundreds of miles away.
And the dangers of web-cam abortions is not speculation. An April 30, 2011, FDA “Mifepristone U.S. Postmarketing Adverse Events Summary” found more than 2,200 “adverse events” associated with use of the abortion drugs [RU-486 and a prostaglandin], including 14 women in the U.S. who died. Women taking the drug were hospitalized with ruptured ectopic pregnancies, blood loss requiring transfusions, and infections that proved deadly in at least seven cases.
The Des Moines Registered offered an excellent example of how supporters tried to avoid answering basic questions posed by members of the Iowa Board of Medicine. According to reporter Jason Noble
“The hearing, held in a state office building, concerns a proposed state rule that would bar medical providers from dispensing abortion-causing drugs via remote video-conferencing systems. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland provides such a service at its network of clinics across the state.
“In one especially heated exchange, medical board member and West Des Moines physician Bob Bender grilled Robert Shaw, a pediatrician and Planned Parenthood board member, on physicians’ level of involvement in the examination of patients before an abortion drug is prescribed.
“Bender repeatedly asked Shaw whether he had ever relied on a certified medical assistant to perform an initial patient examination – something another Planned Parenthood representative had suggested sometimes occurred in telemedicine abortion situations.
“Shaw refused to answer the question, however, arguing that his personal medical experience was irrelevant to questions over the standard of care provided in telemedicine abortions.’
And it was only appropriate that a Planned Parenthood board member should defend web-cam abortions. The “birth” of the web-cam abortion came in July of 2008, when Planned Parenthood’s behemoth Midwestern affiliate Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (PPH) began offering them at 16 of their smaller clinics scattered around Iowa. PPH has since greatly expanded its web-cam abortion operation.
Be sure to come back tomorrow to read Dr. O’Bannon’s complete explanation, which will provide more background and further details