
“Risking women and girls’ lives is big business in the United States when it comes to abortion,” said Students for Life Action’s Kristan Hawkins. “Abusing the tool of telemedicine to fast-track the sale of Chemical Abortion Pills in ways known to expose women and girls to injury, infertility, death, as well as empowering abusers is a loophole abortionists are exploiting. We commend Rep. Greg Steube’s (R-FL) new bill to protect life.”
WASHINGTON D.C. (05-08-2024) — Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins commended a new bill introduced by Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) that will ensure the tool of telemedicine is not abused to push Chemical Abortion Pills in ways known to harm women and girls, as well as end the lives of the preborn. “The Biden Administration, working with the support of the abortion profiteers lobby, created No Test, Online distribution of dangerous Chemical Abortion Pills exposing women to injury, infertility, death, as well as exposing women and girls to abusers who can use the drugs against them without their knowledge and consent. And that’s before we talk about illegal distribution by mail, for those paying attention to the Comstock Act,” noted Hawkins. “Some things can’t be done online, including protecting those exposed to deadly Chemical Abortion Pills. The only people helped by fast-tracking Chemical Abortion Pill sales are those cashing the checks. The issue is not with Telemedicine, but with the misuse of it, something that Rep. Steube is confronting.”
Steube’s proposal, The Women’s Protection in Telehealth Act, would amend Title XI of the Social Security Act to exclude providers of teleabortion services from participation in the Medicare program entirely. Anyone providing a single teleabortion service would be ineligible from Medicare participation for *any* service. Any participant in Medicare who is prescribing, administering, dispensing, or furnishing of an abortion inducing drug without physically examining the patient, physically present when the drugs are administered, and conducts an in-person follow up within two weeks would be ineligible to participate in the Medicare program entirely. This bill would treat teleabortion the exact way under U.S. law as it treats financial fraud or an unlicensed physician providing services with respect to Medicare.
THE YOUTH VOTE: Risking women and girls’ lifes to fast-track a Chemical Abortion Pill sale isn’t supported by one-third of the electorate intensively exposed to those pushing these pills.
In a YouGov poll of registered Youth Voters at Students for Life of America’s Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement, we have reported by margins of 9 in 10, Gen Z and Gen Y support health and safety standards for Chemical Abortion Pills.
ON SUPPORT FOR PRE-SCREENING FOR ECTOPIC PREGNANCY: Ultrasound screenings (a simple imaging technique used to produce images of structures within the body) are used to determine how far along a woman is in pregnancy, as the abortion-inducing drugs can fail if used later in the pregnancy and complications may arise.
Ultrasounds can also be used to determine if a woman has an ectopic pregnancy, which is when the fetus has implanted outside of the uterus/womb. In an ectopic pregnancy, the abortion-inducing drugs will not end the pregnancy, and the woman can have severe complications, including death.
9 in 10 Youth Voters Supported Health and Safety Measures to save the Life of the Mother who may be experiencing an ectopic pregnancy – with 47% saying its “extremely important.”
ON PROTECTING A MOTHER’S FUTURE FERTILITY WITH TREATMENT: A blood test is needed to check a woman’s Rh blood status. Rh-negative blood occurs in 15% of women. If the blood of an Rh-positive fetus gets into the bloodstream of an Rh-negative woman, the woman’s body produces antibodies that could attack the fetus’ blood cells, leading to serious health problems, even death, for a fetus or a newborn. The antibodies also put the mother’s future children at risk while in the womb. Antibodies can be formed after a miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, or an abortion. If Rh-negative blood is detected very early in the pregnancy, a prescription medicine (RhoGAM) can be given to prevent antibodies from forming.
94% supported protecting a woman’s future fertility with a blood test and treatment, with 48% saying it’s extremely important. This is an INCREASE from last year’s poll.
ON PROTECTING WOMEN FROM ABUSERS’ USING THE PILLS: There is evidence that some women have been given abortion pills without their knowledge and consent, often by partners acting against their wishes. Some argue that this practice is more easily done with online sales of the abortion pills. The Washington Post, CNN, and other news sources have reported this, for a number of examples.
Asked, “Do you support limiting the acquisition of abortion-inducing drugs to in-person clinical visits only in order to prevent misuse as shown in the examples above?”, more than 6 in 10 said yes, with only 36% opposing.
This year’s 64% is up from 60% last year.
“You can’t do a blood test or an ultrasound in a conversation online. Ignoring risks to fast track the sale of Chemical Abortion Pills makes no sense, which is why demanding an end to a quick prescription online is a win for women and girls,” said Hawkins. “True healthcare treats both mother and child as patients with inherent dignity. Providing funding through Medicaid for teleabortion ‘healthcare’ not only exploits women, but it also ignores health and safety. We urge members of Congress to cosponsor Rep. Steube’s Women’s Protection in Telehealth Act.”
SFLAction will be mobilizing a powerful pivot point in the many close elections – the Youth Vote – now more than one-third of the electorate. LEARN MORE HERE: SFLA’s Secret Weapon: THE YOUTH VOTE Recruiting, Training, & Activating Pivotal Voters in Tight Races Nationwide
For interviews, email: [email protected]
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The Pro-Life Generation (PLG) is an umbrella organization encompassing the most-cutting edge engagement opportunities for a Vote Pro-Life First Community. PLG includes Students for Life Action (SFLAction), a 501c4, along with its 501c3 sister organization, Students for Life of America (SFLA), that together make up the nation’s largest, pro-life youth organization, managing a grassroots political and policy operation engaging Americans of all ages but with a special emphasis on the largest segment of voters — the Youth Vote. Headquartered in Fredericksburg, VA, PLG/SFLA/SFLAction serves more than 1,400 groups on middle, high school, college, medical, and law school campuses in all 50 states. Our team has more conversations with this generation targeted by the abortion lobby than any other pro-life operation in the world, each week reaching more than 4 million across social media platforms and averaging 1.3 million video views. In addition to SFLA/SFLAction, PLG leads multiple initiatives to lead and serve the future of the pro-life movement including the Campaign for Abortion Free Cities, Standing With You, and the Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement . Over more than 17 years, PLG CEO Kristan Hawkins has grown the operation into a nearly $20M organization, now preparing for an abortion-free America.