Telehealth Improving Access to Care

Recorded:
Oct 2023
Speaker
Dr. Sarah Prager
Duration
1:43
AUDIO CLIP
TRANSCRIPT
Dr. Sarah Prager: A lot of patients in Washington actually live relatively rurally and also live outside of this I-5 corridor. The western part of the state, particularly from Seattle down to Olympia, is where the majority of abortion care exists. There’s very little outside of that. Certainly not in a high-volume setting but even in terms of one office, it’s unusual. And Washington is also a state that has over 50% of the hospital beds controlled by the Catholic church because of mergers, et cetera, and abortion care largely is not or completely is not happening at those sites either, and so there are huge areas of Washington state where the only possible hospital is Catholic. There are no secular options, and so long driving distances sometimes also requiring ferries or other things are required in order to be able to get abortion care. So, that’s the context of abortion care in Washington for a long time. So, what Telehealth allows, now, is that for people physically located in Washington state, and that means they’ve driven across the border into Washington or they live elsewhere in Washington, they can set up a Telehealth visit, and be counseled about medication abortion, and then they can direct that the medication abortion medicines get sent to any physical address in Washington state. So, we can’t mail across state lines; there are limitations to it still, and I can’t provide care for somebody who tells me that they are physically located in Idaho, but that person can come across the border and have meds sent to a friend who lives just across the border and then they can pick up their medications.

explore more in the audio archives

JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER

Sign up to stay up to date on current issues and events related to reproductive care as well as progress regarding our work!