Abortion-rights advocates filed a lawsuit in Alaska Superior Court on Thursday to overturn a state ban on telehealth for abortion services.
The lawsuit was filed in Anchorage by Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaiʻi, Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky.
It targets an element of state law that requires patients receiving abortion services to be treated on-site in hospitals or other facilities approved by the Alaska Department of Health or in federal government hospitals.
That requirement bars the use of telehealth for the prescription of abortion-inducing medicine, which advocates say is a breach of the Alaska constitution’s guarantees of privacy and equal protection.
Alaskans are allowed to use telehealth for numerous other medical services, so the ban on its use for abortion services violates patients’ rights to equal protection, the lawsuit argues.
Past court rulings have confirmed that Alaskans have the right to abortion under the state constitution’s privacy provisions, but the telehealth ban compromises privacy rights by taking away the option for medical abortions at home, which many patients prefer, the lawsuit also argues.
In Alaska, where a significant percentage of the residents live off any connected road system, the telehealth ban is particularly onerous, the lawsuit says.
“Planned Parenthood’s patients often must travel significant distances to have an abortion in Anchorage or Fairbanks, sometimes at great expense and difficulty, including due to weather conditions,” the lawsuit says.
Filed with the lawsuit was a motion for an injunction barring enforcement of the telehealth ban while the case is pending.
“The restriction creates unnecessary barriers that fall hardest on people in rural and remote communities, survivors of violence, and those already facing economic hardship — sometimes barring patients from care entirely. Simply put, this telehealth ban is yet another unnecessary barrier to abortion access, and Alaskans deserve better,” Rebecca Gibron, president of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaiʻi, Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky, said in a statement.
The Alaska Department of Law was not prepared to comment Thursday on the new Planned Parenthood arguments, said Acting Attorney General Cori Mills.
“We will have to review the complaint and have no comment on the specific allegations. As a general matter, the department will defend the law, which carries a presumption of constitutionality and represents state policy validly enacted by the legislature and the governor,” she said by email.
The lawsuit comes at a time when a legal battle is being waged nationally over access to mifepristone, a medicine commonly used to induce abortions. Some states are seeking to outlaw use of mifepristone, though Alaska is not among them.
Planned Parenthood has already won a related case at the Superior Court level with the same arguments about the state constitution’s privacy and equal protection guarantees.
In that case, Superior Court Judge Josie Garton in 2024 struck down a portion of state law that allowed only licensed physicians to perform abortions. The ruling broadened the availability of abortion services, allowing advanced practice clinicians – such as nurse practitioners, physician assistants and certified nurse midwives – to provide the services. Garton had issued an injunction in 2021 that allowed advanced practice clinicians to perform abortions, temporarily blocking enforcement of the physician-only rule while the case played out.
The state appealed Garton’s ruling, and the Alaska Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case in October.