COVID-19 and the Divided States of Abortion

This week’s episode of ACCESS examines how expanded access to medication abortion via telemedicine is making it easier to get an abortion than ever before—but only in some states. The episode is a full circle moment for me in several ways.

I first wrote about telemedicine abortion for WIRED in 2018. Last week, I said that behind most of the stories I’ve written about abortion is months of pitching and convincing editors that the story is important. This piece was a prime example of that: I started corresponding with my editor at WIRED in April and the story wasn’t published until August. My pitch focused on the restrictions standing in the way of access to telemedicine abortion, which have only grown more numerous in the two years since the story was published. One of my editor’s key reservations was that she didn’t want to publish an article about something that was “hypothetical.” I finally convinced her to take the piece by explaining that telemedicine abortion wasn’t hypothetical. It was already known to be safe and effective. The infrastructure was in place in several states. The only thing standing in the way was unnecessary regulation. If those regulations disappeared, abortion access could change dramatically overnight.

I was inspired to write that article after talking with Dr. Bhavik Kumar, who at the time was the Texas medical director for Whole Woman’s Health. I met him when I visited the Whole Woman’s Health Austin clinic as part of a media tour meant to educate journalists about abortion. That tour was a big part of what inspired me to make ACCESS. If you looked at the photos by Robin Marty that I posted on the website along with last week’s episode, you’ll actually recognize Dr. Kumar, because those photos were taken on the very same tour.

Dr. Kumar also appears in this week’s episode of ACCESS. He’s now the director for primary and trans care at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Houston. I spoke with him not only about the state laws that stand in the way of telemedicine abortion in Texas, but about what happened in Texas after the governor attempted to ban abortion via executive order back in March. The ensuing chaos was unlike anything I’ve ever seen as a journalist—Dr. Kumar’s clinic opened and closed eight times over the course of the subsequent legal battle. He shares the story of a patient who had to come into the clinic five times during that period just to get her abortion.

I also got to talk with Leah Coplon, the program director for Maine Family Planning, who I first interviewed for that WIRED article. MFP has been a big pioneer in telemedicine abortion, and I always love talking to Leah about the work they do to help deliver reproductive health care to people in Maine’s most rural areas.

You’ll also hear a bit from Dr. Meera Shah, my guest from last week’s episode, the chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic. In contrast to Dr. Kumar’s story, both Leah and Dr. Shah were able to make changes in order to make it easier for their patients to get abortions during the pandemic.

As things currently stand, you can get a medication abortion in New York or Maine without stepping farther into a clinic than the front desk. In Texas, it takes three in-person visits to a clinic to get the same pills. How did things get this way? Listen to this week’s episode of ACCESS to find out.

Photos by Robin Marty