INDReporter

Senate supports ban on 'telemedicine abortion'

by Walter Pierce

The Louisiana Senate has overwhelmingly agreed to a new abortion restriction that would require doctors to be present when the abortion pill is administered.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The Louisiana Senate has overwhelmingly agreed to a new abortion restriction that would require doctors to be present when the abortion pill is administered.

Senators voted 32-2 Monday for a bill that would prohibit doctors from remotely administering the pill via video hookup, a process criticized as "telemedicine abortion."

Breaux Bridge Sen. Fred Mills, sponsor of the bill, says it will protect women's health.

No one spoke against the proposal in the Senate. It heads next to the House.

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast opposes the bill as medically unnecessary, saying it's designed to make it harder for women to get abortions.

The abortion pill works during the first nine weeks of pregnancy, causing an embryo to detach from the uterine wall.