New Mexico residents can now obtain abortion medication through the mail.
Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) is now participating in a study known as TelAbortion, which provides telehealth medical abortion services.
The process is the same through TelAbortion as that of a regular medical abortion, but does not require patients to physically enter an abortion clinic.
Instead, patients will have video consultations with an abortion provider over the internet and electronically sign consent forms. Though patients are instructed to obtain pelvic exams, blood tests and ultrasounds in person at a medical facility, those who are eligible can acquire the necessary medications and instruction sheets by mail.
Abortion providers will help patients locate medical facilities near them. However, patients are encouraged to contact the TelAbortion coordinator if getting the aforementioned tests pose a significant difficulty for them.
Neta Meltzer, the director of strategic communications at PPRM, explained that a medical abortion involves the combination of two medications, which “cause a patient to expel a pregnancy similar to what might happen in an early miscarriage.”
The PPRM website goes into detail about how the medication works.
In essence, the process entails taking mifepristone, followed by misoprostol either right away or up to 48 hours after you take the first pill. The combination of these medications causes cramping and bleeding and eventually causes the pregnancy to pass from the body. Medical abortions are only available if the pregnancy is under 10 weeks — otherwise, you may seek a surgical abortion.
The medication, specifically mifepristone, was previously only available to patients through a doctor or health clinic. This changed in late July, after a judge in Maryland ruled that abortion provders can deliver mifepristone to patients seeking abortion care through telehealth. However, the ruling will only last while pandemic emergency orders are in place.
The temporary nature of the ruling only highlights the existing challenges that women face while seeking abortion health care in New Mexico.
“A number of factors can impact how easy it is for someone to access abortion care,” and among these are a person’s income and zip code, according to Meltzer. You also see “communities of color facing disproportionate barriers to accessing abortion care and reproductive healthcare.”
According to Meltzer, women must ask themselves: “Do they have a health center nearby that provides that care, or how far do they have to travel? Do they have the means to travel, or do they have to take significant time away from work and find childcare?”
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Indeed, although abortion medication may be free or low cost with health insurance, not all insurance plans cover abortions. Additionally, in order to participate in the TelAbortion study, patients need access to a phone, tablet or computer with an internet connection, webcam and microphone.
Meltzer also brought up concerns about the legality of abortions. She mentioned that accessing medical abortions may become illegal in the future, given the recent death of former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She described how Ginsburg’s presence on the high court provided a safety net for abortion healthcare that is now effectively gone.
“While abortion care is safe in our region for now, I think we can predict that that may change,” Meltzer said.
In the meantime, PPRM is doing a number of things to make abortion health care easily accessible, like increasing services in their health centers and investing in things like telehealth, which allows people to access health care without leaving their homes.
“We are always trying to meet our communities where they are, so we’re always looking at where the greatest need is,” Meltzer said.
In its mission to find new and innovative ways to meet patients’ needs, Planned Parenthood created a new app “which provides UTI treatment or birth control methods” through your phone and allows you to access these services without ever having to leave your home.
“At Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, we believe that health care is a human right, and abortion care is a part of that whole spectrum of sexual and reproductive healthcare,” Meltzer said.
Ellie Rushforth, the reproductive rights attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, said that mifepristone has been highly regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), even though it’s dispensed through telehealth at high levels to treat other conditions.
“The only reason that mifepristone is regulated like this is because it’s related to abortion,” Rushforth said. “The medication is incredibly safe and effective, with a more than 99% safety rate and less than one tenth of one percent of people who experience significant side effects.”
Rushforth explained that abortion services are some of the most highly regulated and politicized kinds of medical care there are.
“Some politicians and special interest groups want to impose their own values on others and are doing just about everything they can to ban abortion and push it out of reach,” Rushforth said.
Additionally, “There’s already incredible barriers to accessing abortion,” and it’s only gotten more difficult with the existing pandemic, according to Rushforth.
One FDA restriction has been lifted during the pandemic, and that’s the in-clinic requirement, which made it so that women could only access abortion medication if it was physically handed to them in a clinic, according to Rushforth. Removing this requirement “allows qualified and competent healthcare providers who provide this care already to serve their patients in a socially distanced way,” she said.
Rushforth called requiring in-person contact “medically unnecessary” and considers it an additional barrier to accessing abortion health care.
When asked how she thinks the stigma surrounding abortion can be reduced, she replied: “Everyone loves someone who’s had an abortion. One in three women will access this care in her lifetime. That means your grandma, your mom, your sister, your auntie and your best friend.”
Rushforth also encouraged people to learn what their legislator’s position is on New Mexico’s 1969 anti-abortion law, which makes it a crime to perform an abortion, and to contact legislators to let them know how you feel about the issue.
Nicole Martin — a member of Laguna Pueblo and the cofounder and sex education developer for Indigenous Women Rising — discussed how important it is that Indigenous women have easy access to abortive medications.
“We already have a lot of barriers to overcome in terms of receiving basic health care … Women having basic access to mifepristone could open a lot more possibilities for what we should (already) have access to,” Martin said.
Martin believes that having easy access to mifepristone means that women won’t have to go through different providers they aren’t familiar with or who aren’t familiar with their culture.
She also discussed the importance of feeling secure enough to access abortion services, especially in a small community where access is limited and everyone knows your business.
“In some places, the nearest hospital is probably two or three hours away, and it’s the same with grocery stores, gas stations or laundromats,” Martin said.
In addition to the accessibility barriers that some Indigenous people face due to a lack of infrastructure and poverty, Martin says that the pandemic has “made it even harder for people to access, or even want to try to access abortion health care.”
Indigenous Women Rising aims to make sure that women feel supported both financially and emotionally. The organization created an abortion fund three years ago to “help alleviate the financial hardships that people face while seeking (surgical) procedures or medication,” and have since helped fund the procedures of about 80 patients. They also provide practical support, such as funding for gas, food and childcare.
According to Martin, Indigenous women have so many things to tackle that “they put their reproductive health on the back burner.” She believes it’s time that society starts supporting them.
Martin said she is confident that “Indigenous Women Rising is doing a really great job at helping to de-stigmatize abortion health care,” and they’re just getting started.
Sayra Ramos is a freelance reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Sayraramos_
