Staff, wire reports
Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s Senate has voted to prohibit doctors from prescribing drugs that induce abortion by telemedicine.
The bill passed by the House doesn’t include the prohibition on physicians remotely prescribing abortion drugs.
The Senate bill, approved 34-0 on Tuesday, goes back to the House of Delegates to decide whether to agree or not to the change.
The bill, House Bill 2509, started out as a telemedicine bill. Mark Drennan, executive director of the West Virginia Behavioral Healthcare Providers Association, said they had requested the bill because current code prevents mental health care providers from prescribing ADHD drugs via telemedicine.
Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, introduced an amendment during a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting that would prevent doctors from prescribing, via telemedicine, any drugs with the intent of causing an abortion.
Women’s health advocates in the state have said the bill could prevent low-income, rural women from accessing care.
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