A political fight over abortion restrictions could prevent passage of a proposed bill in Kansas that could improve telemedicine access for rural areas.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the bill, which has been approved in different forms in the House and Senate, has stalled because of the disagreement. The bill would require insurance companies in Kansas to cover health care services provided through telemedicine if that service is already covered by personal visits to a doctor.
The roadblock is a provision that would include language forbidding abortions to be performed by telemedicine, by using chemicals.
Kansans for Life wants a clause that legally connects abortion and telemedicine, which means if the law were later struck down during a lawsuit over abortion, the telemedicine portion would also be nullified.
