LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - In a telemedicine abortion, women drive to a clinic where they speak to a physician through closed-circuit television. The female patient has an ultrasound performed by a trained technician, receives information about medical abortion and signs a standard informed consent for the abortion.

The doctor reviews the woman's medical history and ultrasound images, and once it is determined that she is eligible, she has time to ask questions.

The doctor enters a computer pass code to remotely open a drawer at the clinic containing two pills. She then swallows the mifepristone, under the doctor's supervision, and then is instructed to take four additional tablets of misoprostol within the next 24 to 48 hours. The actual abortion happens at home.

The procedure amounts to chemical warfare on the child in the womb. Most disturbingly, it is inflicted upon the child by the mother, under the advice of a Doctor!

The national anti-abortion group Operation Rescue calls this procedure "push-button" abortion that "kills babies and endangers the lives of women."

Operation Rescue President Troy Newman says that telemedicine "reduces health care to something like a Skype connection."

"I can't go got my doctor to get headache relief without going through a quick exam," he said. "They weigh me and take my blood pressure and my temperature. The doctor-patient relationship is removed from this part of health care. It boils down to a pre-measured dose of abortion medicine that is pre-packaged and set in a drawer.

"Every woman, whether she is 80 pounds or 200 pounds, gets the same dose from the doctor, who pushes a button and out pops a pill. Women deserve better."

Newman is quick not to dismiss telemedicine in circumstances where doctors cannot get to patients. "When all else fails, you do the best to administer medicine over whatever communication you have," he said.

"But it's like the McDonald's drive-through window of abortion service," he said. "What could be worse than to go home and take a pill or eat a hamburger and get sick. Women who live 100 miles away can have cramping and bleeding and having complications where they are forced to go to the emergency room."

The group has filed several complaints against Planned Parenthood in 2009, but the Iowa Board of Medicine voted to close the file without any disciplinary action, according to Planned Parenthood of the Heartland spokeswoman Shelby Cloke. "We've always been confident we are offering safe and legal services for Iowa women and this ruling validates that," she said.

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