Doctors often use telehealth with a patient and then prescribe drugs. And some abortion providers have been using telehealth to prescribe abortion inducing drugs to patients. The latest Ohio Abortion Report shows there were 10,155 drug-induced abortions in the state in 2024.
Republicans in the Ohio House have approved a bill that puts abortion drugs in a class of drugs that cannot be prescribed via telehealth.
would put unnamed abortion medications into a group of drugs, based on side effects and more, that would require an in-person visit before a doctor could prescribe them.
鈥淲hile telehealth can be beneficial offering increased access to care and convenience, we have had stories both here and throughout the United States where this falls short with high risk medications,鈥� said Rep. Adam Mathews (R-Lebanon), one of the bill鈥檚 joint sponsors.
Mathews said the bill, known as the Patient Protection Act. will ensure these drugs are not prescribed without an in-person visit.
鈥淭hat addresses a critical public health concern in Ohio by protecting the doctor and patient relationship in the age of medical telehealth,鈥� Mathews said.
But abortion rights advocates said there's no need for this bill, and that it goes against the 2023 reproductive rights amendment voters approved.
鈥淭his legislature wants to endorse misinformation," said Jaime Miracle of Abortion Forward. "This legislature is using a completely debunked study on mifepristone to attack access to the medication."
Now that the bill has passed the House, it's up to the Republican-dominated Senate to take up the legislation.