Telemedicine and Abortion are the best combination to get safe and secure access to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Telemedicine is a way to help you perform self-managed abortion at home from your comfort zone. It gives access to a non-invasive and non-intrusive medical abortion procedure.
Medical abortion, though legal, is still restricted in some states. Women who belong to lower, or lower-middle class families suffer the most due to these restrictions. But with the help of telemedicine, medical abortion has been made easier.
Telemedicine is available in almost every country. Women who are stuck in an unwanted pregnancy can receive great help from these telemedicine services.
Self-Managed Abortion With Telemedicine
Telemedicine gives access to perform self-managed abortion at home with utmost convenience. When you choose medical abortion, you are indirectly choosing telemedicine.
Self-managed abortion is when you do not take any guidance from your healthcare provider, but acquire all the information from a telemedicine service and buy abortion pill pack online.
Telemedicine provides electronic information to women who are seeking medical abortion and couldn’t have access to local healthcare facilities.
Telemedicine and Abortion: Bridging the Gap
Telemedicine helps to bridge the gap between women who belong to lower, or lower-middle class income levels. With access to telemedicine services in most countries, it has opened the door for safe and reliable abortion care.
Abortion is a deeply personal choice, every woman has the right to decide for her reproductive health. Earlier women didn’t have much of a choice, whether she doesn’t want to give birth or might suffer health threats due to pregnancy, they weren’t allowed to abort, leading to high numbers of maternal deaths.
Women who live in rural and remote areas are highly affected due to the non-availability of proper abortion care and facilities. Plus the distance of an abortion clinic, cost of operation, convenience, flexibility, privacy, and restrictions imposed by law for waiting periods and policies are huge hurdles for them.
Telemedicine acts as a healthcare provider for these women, giving them access to online information on medication abortion.
What are the Benefits of Telemedicine?
A study conducted in South Africa by SSM – Qualitative Research in Health explored the opinions and perspectives of women who perceived medical abortion through telemedicine, providing great insight into telemedicine.
This study was conducted in 2021, between the months of April and December, an interview was conducted with 7 healthcare providers, 13 women’s, and 2 policy makers. It was an in-depth study of their thinking process while choosing telemedicine and during the medical abortion process. The framework was assessed on 7 constructs, which were: ethicality, affective attitudes, coherence, burden, opportunity costs, self-efficacy, and perceived effectiveness.
The results showed that with the help of telemedicine, women were less worried about privacy, and didn’t experience the notion pertaining to abortion, instead, they got a trustworthy healthcare provider online. Telemedicine made it easier for women to protect their privacy, perform a self-managed abortion at home, and the ability to access the needed information as per their will.
While healthcare providers and policy makers stated that telemedicine is basically lessening the burden of local facility providers. The only thing they were worried about was the gestational age of a woman’s pregnancy, because some women don’t reveal their true gestational age, scared they will be turned away.
Medical abortion is usually performed during the gestational age of 5 to 10 weeks (early pregnancy), the abortion pills are most effective during this time, but at later stages, there are possibilities of complications if not performed under a local healthcare professional.
Overcoming Socio-Economic Barriers With Telemedicine
Many women who are stuck in an unwanted pregnancy suffer due to socioeconomic barriers. These barriers include uneducation, income differences, cultural beliefs and access to basic healthcare facilities greatly affect women’s health and also result in unawareness of the basic rights of a woman.
Local healthcare providers usually show a negative attitude towards women who come from such conditions and avoid providing them with any help. They have to go through unnecessary medical tests, longer waiting periods, lack of social support, and sometimes provision of misleading information.
But telemedicine treats every woman equally, the information and service is for every woman, no matter her race, color, or religion. Women all over the world completely trust telemedicine services and feel secure about it.
Conclusion
Medical abortion is 100% approved by The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA-approved). Abortion is very normal and familiar all over the world. Over 30% of women undergo medical or surgical abortion at least once in their lifetime.
You can compare the effectiveness of telemedicine with the local in-clinic abortion procedures and see the difference for yourself. Once you get to know about the telemedicine services you won’t ever choose the other abortion method.