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California is considering added protections for doctors who facilitate abortions using telehealth. If it becomes law, it could affect patients across the country. NPR's Katia Riddle has this report.
KATIA RIDDLE, BYLINE: It's been three years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Since then, the number of abortions in this country has actually increased. That's in part because women can receive abortion medication through the mail, even in states where the procedure is restricted. That's due to providers like this one.
R: I feel grateful that there is this opportunity to provide this care.
RIDDLE: R is a doctor based in California. He asked to only be identified by his middle initial out of concern for his safety. He writes prescriptions for the medications mifepristone and misoprostol for patients in states with strict abortion bans.
R: But it does make it more difficult to do so when my name needs to be on the prescription label.
RIDDLE: At least one doctor is currently facing criminal charges for mailing these medications in the U.S. The new bill would allow doctors like R to write a prescription that does not display the name of the doctor or their patient. The medication would still be mailed to someone in a package, but the actual labeling wouldn't reveal either name.
Natalie Birnbaum is with RHITES. That's a group that advocates for abortions to be available through telehealth. She helped craft the bill in California.
NATALIE BIRNBAUM: It's our priority to make sure that there are providers that are able and willing and have the least amount of risk to do this work and to keep going.
RIDDLE: California is not the first place to put in place a law that offers labeling protections. Birnbaum says it is the first time a state has allowed for a patient's name to be removed from the label as well.
BIRNBAUM: For that patient to say, OK, I don't have to be as worried that if I throw it in the garbage, that an abusive partner or somebody with a very different value system than I do will find this label and then in some way, try and penalize me for my choices.
RIDDLE: Steven Aden is general counsel for the group Americans United for Life. His organization and other anti-abortion advocacy groups argue that legislation like this is not constitutional.
STEVEN ADEN: The problem with actions like California is they don't respect what the Supreme Court said in Dobbs.
RIDDLE: He says that the Dobbs decision was supposed to empower states, not allow for one state's laws to override another's.
ADEN: You have a regime of pro-abortion states and a regime where the pro-life laws of some states are just paper tigers. They're meaningless.
RIDDLE: It's an issue that could end up before the Supreme Court. A rare point of agreement for people on all sides of this debate is that the U.S. legal system needs to offer clarity on the question of how far a state's authority extends when it comes to telehealth. Until then, providers in California, like R, say they plan to take advantage of their state's new law.
R: If our society eventually decides that we can't do this, OK, well, maybe we can't do this. In the meantime, large sectors of societies have agreed to allow us to do this, which is why we can do this legally. But we should not be - personal risk.
RIDDLE: R provides prescriptions for abortion medication, even for patients who aren't currently pregnant. With so much uncertainty, he says, it's better to be prepared. Katia Riddle, NPR News.
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