Doctors videoconference in, and physician assistants provide vacuum aspiration abortions - seems like a great way to increase availability of abortions and safety for doctors.
A major problem with abortion access in the US is that there aren't many abortion doctors. Some states don't have a single abortion provider. Fear of bombings and Dr.Tiller-type murder prevents potential abortion providers from working. However, current videoconferencing technologies provide doctors with excellent ability to view patients, without having to be there. Physician's assistants can legally perform vaccuum aspiration abortions, in many places. Physician assistants are licensed by each state to practice medicine with physician supervision. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/... Similarly, nurse practitioners and nurse midwives could perform first-trimester abortions with videoconferenced physician supervision. Seems to me this would increase safety of abortion doctors, as well as vastly increase the accessibility of abortions throughout the U.S.