Iowa is known for being a farming state. Many of the people who live in Iowa live in rural areas. Many people, myself included, have to drive at least 20 to 30 miles just to get to a grocery store. So it is no surprise that hospitals come few and far between in this state. That is why Planned Parenthood became the first in the nation to start video consultations between women and their doctors in order to get abortion pills in 2008.

Being from a small town, I understand that driving to the doctor for the common cold can be a pain in the butt, but we are talking about the termination of a child. This is way more than the common cold. It would be more understandable for a woman who is out of the country to request having a video consultation for abortion pills. For this reason, it seems completely reasonable for Iowa judges to rule against telemed abortion.

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Planned Parenthood of the Heartland had sued the Iowa Board of Medicine because Planned Parenthood claims the ban is an attempt to make abortions more difficult for women in rural areas, according to the Des Moines Register.

Statistics show that even though the telemed consultations were available, the abortion rate in the state of Iowa went down 30 percent from 2007 to 2012, according to state record. The ruling is set to take effect in less than 30 days. With the number of abortions each year decreasing anyway, it seems we will not be needing telemed abortions in the first place.

Advances in technology are great. I am 100 percent on board with having the technology to do telemedical consultations with a doctor. If I ever get stuck in the jungle and contract a deadly disease, being able to get medication prescribed through a video consultation and having it sent to me would help tremendously.

Using the telemed abortion system in Iowa to get pills is a misuse of the technology. The state of Iowa has 40 hospitals, not counting free-standing clinics, according to the American Hospital Directory. With only 99 counties Iowa, we have nearly half as many hospitals as we do counties. Of course, there are clusters of hospitals in the larger cities such as Des Moines, but this also means that there are hospitals scattered around the state and most likely near a rural area.

If people in Iowa are struggling to get to the doctor, what’s next? Are people going to have their groceries delivered via a consultation with a dietician?These notions are ridiculous, and getting pills to remove a baby seem just as ridiculous.

I am not putting myself on a pedestal saying that abortion is right or wrong in anyway, but the method in which doctors are able to prescribe pills to women via video does not seem to be the correct way to go about this. When women are pregnant, there needs to be a gynecological examination in most cases. This makes two things wrong with this method. One, it would be very difficult — if not impossible — to do an examination on yourself, not to mention it would be awkward. Two, if the examination is being done by someone who is not a physician, it is likely to not be done correctly and therefore would be moot. For a woman to be able to get abortion pills without having physical contact with a doctor also seems dangerous.

Taking all of these factors into consideration, it is not the right time to start distributing abortion pills through the mail, nor is it the right time for women in Iowa to have abortion consultations via the Internet. It is true that technology has opened the door to new ways for people to communicate, but communicating with your doctor on this subject should be done in person and I am glad to see that the door to telemed abortion has been shut.