Iowa ban on 'telemedicine' abortions struck down by state supreme court

Court decides that rule would have placed undue burden on women's right to an abortion as activists praise decision: 'Politics should never trump medicine'

The Iowa supreme court has struck down a restriction that would have prevented doctors from administering abortion-inducing pills remotely via video teleconferencing, saying it would have placed an undue burden on a woman's right to get an abortion.

Iowa is one of only two states that offers so-called telemedicine abortions - Minnesota offers them on a smaller scale - and doctors at Iowa's urban clinics that perform abortions had been allowed to continue offering the remotely administered abortions while the ruling was pending.