"Telemedicine abortion combines medication abortion, which uses pills to end a pregnancy, with telemedicine, which allows health care providers meet with patients via videoconferencing or telephone consultations.

Medication abortion, approved by the FDA for use during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, uses two different medicines: mifepristone, which interrupts the flow of the hormone progesterone that sustains the pregnancy; and misoprostol, which causes contractions. Misoprostol alone is 80-85 percent effective, and in combination with mifepristone is 95 percent effective. Medication abortion is an extremely safe way to end a pregnancy in the first 12 weeks of gestation. According to the Guttmacher Institute, in 2017 medication abortion accounted for approximately 40 percent of all recorded abortions and 60 percent of abortions performed up to 10 weeks gestation. (The actual rate is likely higher because of the growing number of people who are self-managing their abortions using medication purchased on the internet or obtained in other ways.)

The growth of medication abortion has dovetailed with the expansion of telehealth to provide new opportunities for accessing abortion health care. As abortion restrictions have increased over the last several years and harassment of people entering health clinics persists — even during the COVID-19 crisis — people are increasingly turning to medication abortion and telehealth to increase their safety and privacy when obtaining abortion care."

"In light of COVID-19, and the need for increased social distancing, advocates are increasingly challenging the FDA’s REMS restrictions on the abortion pill. This effort is supported by recent research on the safety of a no-test medication abortion protocol that allows doctors to screen patients by phone or video and then mail abortion pills directly to them. On March 30, 2020, a coalition of 21 state attorneys general led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra sent a strongly-worded letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), urging the Trump Administration to waive or utilize its discretion on enforcement of its REMS designation. In addition to the attorneys general letter, reproductive health groups are pressuring the government to remove the REMS restriction on the abortion pill. In July of 2020, a federal judge in Maryland issued a ruling temporarily suspending enforcement of an FDA restriction on abortion pills during the pandemic."