Organization fights for Telehealth equity
Broadband access and affordable internet key components of reproductive justice
As telehealth becomes central to abortion care, broadband internet access and affordable streaming technology have become centerpieces of the reproductive justice philosophy.
Poorer communities and those that live in rural areas don’t have the same ability as richer and more urban places to access telemedicine because of those issues. Activists have established organizations like the Reproductive Health Initiative for Telehealth Equity & Solutions (RHITES) to address this. Dana Northcraft, its founding director, spoke to Repro Rights Now about her work.
“There's still a real need within the telehealth community to embrace reproductive health care and especially abortion access,” Northcraft said. “And there's a real need to make telehealth more mainstream within reproductive health care, especially around abortion.”
Last year, Northcraft studied 14 states to see how they treated telehealth abortion medication. The women there are disproportionately affected by problems related to insurance coverage for abortion and Medicaid access. Many of those problems will continue to exist even with telehealth, but it may help alleviate some of the difficulties.
“Telehealth is not a panacea. It's not going to solve every problem, but you want to give patients choices and expanded access,” Northcraft said.
In an ideal world, telehealth services and all reproductive care would be completely covered in insurance plans and also funded for those who couldn’t afford it. People would also have access to good broadband.
“If you are in a low bandwidth area, it's sometimes even hard to make a phone call, let alone have a video visit with a doctor,” Northcraft said.
In urban areas, broadband can be cost-prohibitive. So making it more affordable is also something that Northcraft and her organization fight for. She thinks there should be laws that force landlords to provide broadband like other vital services.
“Broadband needs to be seen as any other utility like electricity and water,” Northcraft said.