Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have expanded telemedicine services during the coronavirus outbreak because it excluded access to at-home, drug-induced abortions.
Wolf, who has typically rejected pro-life legislation, vetoed Senate Bill 857, a measure that would have expanded virtual medical services for those unable to see their doctors in person, because the bill prohibited access to drugs to induce at-home abortions.
In a veto message, the governor said a Pennsylvania House amendment to the legislation that banned telemedicine services that are not approved under the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) was not acceptable to him.
The abortion drug Mifeprex has not been approved under REMS.
.@GovernorTomWolf today signed two bills: one helping cover @PANationalGuard members on active duty if they contract COVID-19 while performing their duties, and another providing for @PAGameComm to pay a fair market value for land in Allegheny County.https://t.co/uso60ghbVZ
— Office of the Governor (@GovernorsOffice) April 29, 2020
“I supported a prior printer’s number of the bill, but as amended in the House of Representatives, this legislation arbitrarily restricts the use of telemedicine for certain doctor-patient interactions,” Wolf said. “As amended, this bill interferes with women’s health care and the crucial decision-making between patients and their physicians.”
In 2018, abortion giant Planned Parenthood announced it was spending $1.5 million to reelect Wolf, who has repeatedly vetoed pro-life legislation such as a measure that would ban dismemberment abortions and another that would ban abortions based on a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome.
On Monday, national pro-life leaders sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn urging him to take action to block the illegal Internet sale of abortion-inducing drugs that are produced overseas and then shipped to the United States.
In a press release, the leaders observed that, under REMS, Mifeprex and its generic form, mifepristone, “cannot legally be sold in pharmacies or online due to the risk of serious complications.”
“[B]ut website domains such as AidAccess and Rablon that sell and distribute abortion-inducing drugs continually fail to comply with REMS requirements,” the release added.
Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement:
We urge the FDA to protect American women from dangerous abortion drugs entering the U.S. market illegally from overseas. AidAccess, Rablon, and the abortion radicals who operate these illegal pill-mills jeopardize women’s health and safety every day they continue to operate. Chemical abortion drugs pose a serious risk of potentially life-threatening complications. Research shows as many as five to seven percent of women who undergo chemical abortions will require follow-up surgery.
The letter to Hahn acknowledges that the FDA is “seriously defending the necessary safeguards contained in the Mifeprex REMS litigation.”
The pro-life leaders add, “These safeguards are meaningless, however, if opportunistic entities can sell abortion-inducing drugs over the internet with impunity. We urge the FDA to act now to stop this predatory and dangerous practice.”
Planned Parenthood has been touting an increase in at-home abortions since its tele-abortion services began nationwide.
One Planned Parenthood official in New York State said the organization’s new service is so much in demand that one mother began her drug-induced abortion “at home with her children running around behind her.”
Dr. Meera Shah, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic, told the Associated Press (AP), “We provided a medication abortion to an EMT while she was sitting in her ambulance. We provided abortion care to a mother who was at home with her children running around behind her.”
Former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino explained in his videos about various abortion procedures that mifepristone blocks the action of progesterone, which the mother’s body produces to nourish the pregnancy. When progesterone is blocked, the lining of the mother’s uterus deteriorates, and blood and nourishment are cut off to the developing baby, who then dies inside the mother’s womb.
The drug misoprostol (also called Cytotec) then causes contractions and bleeding to expel the baby from the mother’s uterus.
This entire process, then, is happening at home with Planned Parenthood’s at-home abortion service, to which Wolf insists women have access.
Katie Glenn, government affairs counsel at Americans United for Life, said in a statement sent to Breitbart News Wolf’s veto underscores he “sides with the abortion industry, not Pennsylvanians in need.”
“Gov. Wolf vetoed a bill that would expand critical telemedicine options for all Pennsylvanians just because it could not be used to circumvent state and federal law to create a regime of at-home abortion,” she added. “Gov. Wolf has made it clear what his priority is–and it isn’t expanding healthcare access for rural Pennsylvanians.
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