Abortion Pill During COVID-19
Telemedicine has become a new model for medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic with limited in-person clinics. A woman can receive an abortion pill online or by mail without a full medical assessment by a healthcare provider and ultrasound to confirm a healthy pregnancy that will continue. Furthermore, in most cases, these options do not require a follow-up visit with a medical provider.
The following information will give you an idea of why these options are not beneficial and in fact cause more harm than good.
Protocol Before COVID-19
Prior to COVID-19, to confirm a pregnancy, the woman would make an appointment for a pregnancy test confirmation by a medical professional.
After a positive pregnancy test, a comprehensive medical assessment and an ultrasound would be performed by a trained medical professional. The ultrasound would confirm an intrauterine pregnancy, proper dating (how far along she is in her pregnancy) and detect a fetal heartbeat.
The ultrasound provides a gateway for the woman to have all the information she needs to make a truly informed decision. It also is a means of early detection and intervention of life-threatening conditions, such as an ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage that can be immediately addressed by the medical provider.
Telemedicine Abortion Safety Concerns
The COVID-19 telemedicine protocols for the abortion pill are a gross contrast to the former proper medical assessments. Now, there is no in-patient consultation or examination. Instead, there’s only an initial screening over the phone to determine eligibility to receive the abortion pill.
Depending on geographic location, some providers only require the last menstrual period to confirm gestation and proceed to prescribe the abortion pill. The patient is set up to create a no-test pick up where she can quickly pick up the pill in a brown paper bag and is sent on her way.
The reality is self-managed abortion is not safe, as it removes the common-sense safeguards of proper medical procedures. It eliminates the in-person examinations and in-clinic pregnancy testing for accuracy, and instead, relies on at-home pregnancy tests not being interpreted by trained health care professionals.
Diagnostics such as ultrasound are not performed to determine viability of pregnancy. Furthermore, there is no education for potential miscarriage and ectopic pregnancies advising patients to seek emergent medical attention if they develop severe abdominal or pelvic pain, lightheadedness, dizziness, blackouts, low blood pressure, passage of tissue, and life-threatening hemorrhages.
Abortion Pill Education
The abortion pill, Mifeprisone, carries 4-5 more complications for infection, undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy, failure to abort (women can still remain pregnant when abortion pill fails) and bleeding which will ultimately lead to emergent surgical intervention.
The abortion pill has 4-5x likelihood of complication of hemorrhage, which can last 2 weeks or more.
Contact Us
Under no circumstance is self-managed abortion safe and True Choice Medical Clinics continues to adhere to the best practice guidelines to keep our patients safe through in-person, comprehensive assessment.
If you have an unplanned pregnancy, there are safe resources and options still available.
Please call our clinic: (858) 397-1970, text: (858) 822-9335, or email: [email protected] to speak with our medical staff.
References:
https://dailycaller.com/2020/03/19/abortion-drugs-coronavirus-fda/
https://time.com/5814028/abortion-clinics-during-coronavirus/
https://prcgr.org/can-i-buy-abortion-pills-online/
