Destiny Lopez (Co-President and CEO), at the US Senate, urges maintaining access to medication abortion—now two-thirds of all abortions in the US—especially through telehealth in rural areas, emphasizing its safety and critical role post-Dobbs.
Guttmacher acting co-CEO on the importance of ensuring access to medication abortion at US Senate
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Transcript: Senator Lisa Murkowski: What can we do practically, right now, to help ameliorate some of what we are seeing with the impact of the Dobbs decision to ensure that women do have access to the care they need now? Ms. Lopez, go ahead. Yeah, I'm happy to answer.
Destiny Lopez: Thank you for the question. One of the things we can do, Senator, is ensure that we can maintain access to medication abortion. Right? Medication abortion now accounts for two-thirds of all abortions in this country as of 2023. And in rural areas like yours, it's incredibly important to have that option via telehealth for folks who can't reach a provider, or when they live in communities as the doctor said, that don't have providers given the limited access to providers that they have and so maintaining access to a method that we know is safe and effective based on decades of widespread use and study, I think becomes critically important. Thank you for saying that. I absolutely agree. Thank you, Ms. Chairman.
Senator Lisa Murkowski: Thank you.