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May 1, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – As Americans continue to suffer both the health and the economic fallout of the COVID-19 outbreak, Planned Parenthood is celebrating the rise in women turning to them to abort their children with pills at home.

Advice from medical authorities has led many governors to order the temporary suspension of all or most “non-urgent” health appointments and elective medical procedures, both to limit the spread of COVID-19 and to free up time and resources to focus on infected patients. Some have expressly included surgical abortions, to the abortion industry’s chagrin.

While Planned Parenthood has resisted those mandates, at the same time it has promoted and expanded the use of so-called “webcam abortions,” in which a woman consults a physician remotely via the internet before receiving abortion pills, which she then takes at home without any sort of medical oversight.

“It is actually a silver lining in this pandemic, that Planned Parenthood and many other health providers have actually been able to really lean into telehealth infrastructure and provide service,” acting Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill-Johnson said in an interview with Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, Catholic News Agency (CNA) reported.

McGill-Johnson said that by the end of April, Planned Parenthood would have expanded its so-called “telehealth” operations to all 50 states. CNA also reported that the New York-based Gynuity Health Products, which operates in 13 states, says its TelAbortion program has seen the number of women seeking chemical abortions in March and April double from the number in January and February (excluding Illinois and Maryland, where it just started).

Elsewhere in the interview, McGill-Johnson said it was “really unconscionable” that states were asking the abortion industry to make the same concessions as legitimate medical fields.

Pro-lifers contend that these “safe, home abortions” run the risk of placing additional, unnecessary strain on the healthcare system.

“Elective abortion, both surgical and drug induced, also generates more patients to be seen in already overburdened emergency rooms,” the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) states. “Most abortion providers instruct women to go to an emergency room if they have any concerning symptoms after the abortion. Approximately five percent of women who undergo medication abortions will require evaluation in an emergency room, most commonly for hemorrhage. Surgical abortions can also result in hemorrhage. Emergency room personnel – who are already struggling to meet the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic – will be further strained to provide care to these women.”

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