Medication-induced abortions are already more common in Ohio than those involving surgical procedures. The new Ohio Abortion Report shows o the 25,135 abortions provided in Ohio in 2025, 14,916 were conducted with the use of abortion-inducing drugs. That’s 59% of all abortions in Ohio last year.
Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, which operates a dozen health centers and two surgical facilities, plans to provide those abortions using telehealth services.
Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio President and CEO Erica Wilson-Domer said her organization has been using virtual healthcare for things like contraceptive care. She said telehealth, which can be done online without a physical visit, will now be used for medication abortions as well.
“We understand that people struggle with access, transportation barriers, child care barriers, people have jobs and often people want to be able to control when they are able to receive that abortion care so telemedicine opens up that access for people,” said Wilson-Domer.
Wilson-Domer said this will make access easier for people who live in rural areas and may not have the ability to travel to major cities where clinics are located.
“There are so many rural areas of Ohio and so one of our goals is to make contraceptive access, abortion access, make all of these vital reproductive health care points available, particularly for our rural patients,” Wilson-Domer said.
But she added the organization won’t be allowing telehealth abortions for women who live outside Ohio.
“We don’t have shield laws like several other states have enacted like New York, California protects providers,” Wilson-Domer said, adding that the organization wants its providers to be compliant with state law and as protected as possible.
Many Ohio lawmakers want to ban telehealth use for abortion
Some Republicans in the Ohio House have been trying to stop medication abortions and the possible use of telehealth. House Bill 324 would put unnamed abortion medications into a group of drugs, based on side effects and more, that would require an in-person visit before a doctor could prescribe them.
“While telehealth can be beneficial offering increased access to care and convenience, we have had stories both here and throughout the United States where this falls short with high-risk medications,” said Rep. Adam Mathews (R-Lebanon), one of the bill’s joint sponsors.
Mathews said the bill, known as the Patient Protection Act. will ensure these drugs are not prescribed without an in-person visit.
“That addresses a critical public health concern in Ohio by protecting the doctor and patient relationship in the age of medical telehealth,” Mathews said.
As far as patient safety, Wilson-Romer said that’s not a problem: “There really is no reason to restrict access. This is 100 percent ideological rather than science and evidence medicine based.”
And Wilson-Domer said telehealth medication abortions are protected under the 2023 reproductive rights amendment. A 2021 state law that bans abortion medication through telehealth is already on hold by courts.
