NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Telemedicine reproductive care
Senate leader Courtney
says he’s sticking around connects options in Oregon
Associated Press
PORTLAND — Oregon
Senate President Peter Court-
ney says he has no plans to
step aside, despite a bruis-
ing legislative session that
saw two walkouts by Repub-
licans and criticism from
some of his fellow majority
Democrats about the Legis-
lature’s failure to pass a cli-
mate change bill and other
measures.
Courtney told The Ore-
gonian/OregonLive that “I’m
not going anywhere.” The
76-year-old lawmaker says
he’s already conferring with
House Speaker Tina Kotek
about how to pass a cap-and-
trade measure to curb green-
house gas emissions next
year.
That bill sparked the
GOP’s second Senate walk-
out of the 2019 Legislature.
They returned after more
than a week away from
the Capitol after it became
clear the environmental bill
wouldn’t pass this session.
Environmental activists
took aim at Courtney, the
longtime Democrat from
Salem, after he conceded
defeat on the climate bill five
days before the 2019 ses-
sion ended. With all 11 Sen-
ate Republicans still away
from Salem, he announced
his caucus of 18 Senate Dem-
ocrats couldn’t muster the
needed 16 votes to pass the
OPB Photo/Bryan M. Vance, File
Democratic Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney is
shown in this undated file photo.
bill — clearing the way for
Republicans to return and
claim victory over its defeat.
Tom Kelly, chair of
Oregon Business for Cli-
mate, issued a statement
after Courtney’s carbon bill
announcement, calling it
an “extraordinary breach of
faith with how our legislative
process should work.”
On Thursday, Kelly said
he was frustrated Court-
ney announced the plan
lacked Democratic support
because “I was told by peo-
ple, inside people, that there
were the votes and votes had
been counted by other people
including our governor.”
Whether Courtney should
retire, Kelly said, “is not for
me to say.”
Sen. Jeff Golden, a lib-
eral Democrat from Ash-
land, was among a handful
of Democrats who pushed
for caucus rule changes last
fall that would have reduced
the Senate president’s pow-
ers, for example over which
bills receive a vote. Golden
said this week it’s “time for a
reset” and Democrats “need
to find new ways to get legis-
lation done.”
He declined to comment
“on supporting Peter or not
right now.”
Even if Senate Democrats
did want a new leader, it’s not
clear who might ascend to the
job.
The full 30-member Sen-
ate votes to select a presi-
dent, so any Democratic sen-
ator would have to secure the
votes of 16 in their party or
line up bipartisan support.
Courtney overwhelmingly
won re-election in January
with bipartisan support.
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
Mostly sunny and
seasonably hot
Mostly sunny and
not as warm
Pleasant with
plenty of sunshine
Partly sunny
Sunny, breezy and
pleasant
94° 57°
84° 51°
Clinical trial
provides care for
rural women using
telemedicine
ications by mail.
Gynuity Health Projects
is a New York research non-
profit focusing on repro-
ductive and maternal health
care.
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Oregon Capital Bureau
Limited clinic access
SALEM — Telemed-
icine has provided a new
avenue for abortion access
for Oregonians, utilized by
about 50 patients in its first
year.
Planned
Parenthood
Columbia Willamette is
part of a trial by Gynu-
ity Health Projects that is
allowing some patients
in Oregon, Washington
and several other states to
obtain abortion medication
via telemedicine.
The sparse use of the
option might be because
many women don’t know
the service is available.
Women seeking an abor-
tion can do so in the first 10
weeks of pregnancy by tak-
ing two pills, rather than a
surgical abortion. The U.S.
Food and Drug Adminis-
tration tightly regulates the
first of the two medications,
mifepristone.
Patients can only get
mifepristone by physically
going to a certified provider
at a clinic or hospital.
Participants in this
research study, instead,
can get necessary tests
locally, consult with a
Planned Parenthood clini-
cian via videoconference,
and then receive both med-
EPA stands by chlorpyrifos in
latest court-ordered decision
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
92° 58°
93° 63°
88° 55°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
98° 59°
87° 52°
95° 60°
98° 67°
OREGON FORECAST
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
Olympia
68/56
Kennewick Walla Walla
96/61
Lewiston
75/56
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Astoria
68/55
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Yakima 97/60
75/53
99/65
Portland
Hermiston
80/57
The Dalles 98/59
Salem
Corvallis
76/51
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
93/55
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
81/51
87/44
98/56
Ontario
97/66
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95/48
Trace
Trace
0.16"
4.55"
5.10"
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WINDS (in mph)
Caldwell
Burns
95°
63°
90°
59°
108° (1938) 43° (1982)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
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Albany
79/51
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 91/51
79/52
0.01"
0.03"
0.22"
9.60"
6.49"
7.80"
HERMISTON
Enterprise
94/57
85/59
94°
65°
90°
60°
111° (1905) 41° (1897)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
76/53
Aberdeen
93/57
90/61
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
75/57
KENNEWICK, Wash.
— U.S. farmers are apply-
ing less chlorpyrifos and
likely would adapt to a ban,
but keeping the insecticide
in reserve would be insur-
ance against outbreaks of
pests, a Washington State
University
entomologist
said Friday.
Measured in pounds,
chlorpyrifos remains the
most widely applied con-
ventional insecticide in the
U.S. But USDA numbers
show its use is declining,
even without the prohibition
sought by environmental
groups, said Allan Felsot, a
professor and extension spe-
cialist at WSU Tri-Cities.
“There’s no doubt there
are going to be specific sit-
uations where it’s effective,”
he said. “A compromise
position for the industry
could be ... only use it when
you need to.”
The Environmental Pro-
tection Agency reaffirmed
Thursday that it won’t out-
law chlorpyrifos, at least not
yet. The EPA maintained its
stance that ban advocates
haven’t proven that even at
low levels chlorpyrifos per-
manently damages unborn
children and infants and
lowers their IQs.
The EPA announce-
ment met a deadline
set by the 9th U.S. Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals. A
dozen groups represented
by Earthjustice petitioned
to prohibit the chemical.
Seven states, including
Washington and Califor-
nia, backed the petition.
PENDLETON
TEMP.
Seattle
By DON JENKINS
EO Media Group
92° 60°
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
87/55
Wed.
WSW 7-14
W 6-12
WSW 6-12
W 7-14
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
87/45
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
5:28 a.m.
8:35 p.m.
none
12:05 p.m.
Last
New
First
Full
July 24
July 31
Aug 7
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NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 108° in Needles, Calif. Low 34° in Old Faithful, Wyo.
Abortion providers are
far sparser than pharma-
cies, particularly in rural
areas.
As of 2014, there were 27
non-specialized facilities in
Oregon that provided abor-
tion services, and 15 spe-
cialized abortion clinics,
according to a 2017 paper
published in the journal
Perspectives on Sexual and
Reproductive Health.
At that time, about 30
percent of Oregon women
lived in counties without a
specialized abortion clinic.
Oregon’s
easternmost
Planned Parenthood clinic
is in Bend. Some patients
in Eastern Oregon travel to
Washington or Idaho if clin-
ics in those states are closer.
The
new
telemed-
icine process has sev-
eral steps. When a patient
calls Planned Parenthood
Columbia Willamette seek-
ing an abortion, the call
center asks if they want to
use the telemedicine option,
and connects the patient
with the organization’s
research coordinator, who
explains the process.
If the patient is still inter-
ested, the coordinator helps
them set up an ultrasound
and blood tests through a
local medical provider.
After results come
through, the patient has
a videoconference with a
clinician who discusses
the results and prescribes
the two abortion medi-
cations, if appropriate.
Patients seeking a medica-
tion abortion don’t neces-
sarily need to see a clinician
in person, said Dr. Paula
Bednarek, medical direc-
tor for Planned Parenthood
Columbia Willamette.
“You need an ultrasound
and blood work somewhere,
but you don’t have to go far
away for those, necessar-
ily,” Bednarek said. “And
then the rest of the visit is
really about counseling and
education, and making sure
everybody feels prepared,
and then getting the medi-
cations to the patient.”
Planned
Parenthood
then mails the medications.
Once the patient takes the
medications, Planned Par-
enthood is available around
the clock to counsel them.
Patients have a blood test,
pregnancy test or ultra-
sound later to check that
the pregnancy has been
terminated.
But not many people
know about the telemedi-
cine option, Bednarek said.
“Patients don’t know
that
it’s
available,”
Bednarek said. “And by
the time they call our
office, they’ve already fig-
ured out how to get them-
selves into a health center,
and so they’ve spent a cou-
ple of weeks figuring that
piece out, and they didn’t
realize this was an option.”
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Washington Gov. Jay
Inslee on Friday equated
chlorpyrifos with pollu-
tion. “Again and Again,
the Trump administration
puts polluters before our
children and their futures,”
tweeted Inslee, who linked
to a New York Times story
on EPA’s decision.
Agriculture Secretary
Sonny Purdue tweeted his
approval of EPA’s position.
“For more than 50 crops,
chlorpyrifos is the only line
of defense and a cost-effec-
tive crop protection tool for
farmers. We appreciate the
EPA’s support of Ameri-
can farmers and producers
in its commitment to fact-
based regulatory oversight
of crop protection tools,”
he wrote.
The Obama EPA ten-
tatively proposed ban-
ning chlorpyrifos in 2015,
but resisted pressure from
the 9th circuit to make a
final decision until after
a change in White House
administrations.
The
Trump EPA has taken the
position that it won’t ban
chlorpyrifos, but will com-
plete a review by Oct. 1,
2022, or earlier.
The EPA has restricted
the use of chlorpyrifos over
the past two decades. The
agency said more limits
could be coming.
“Registration review is
a comprehensive, scien-
tific and transparent pro-
cess that will further eval-
uate the potential effects of
chlorpyrifos,” the EPA said
it a statement.
“EPA has also been
engaged in discussions with
the chlorpyrifos registrants
that could result in fur-
ther use limitations affect-
ing the outcome of EPA’s
assessments.”
Felsot said he’s neutral
on whether to ban chlorpyr-
ifos. “I’m not worried about
it,” he said. “I know people
are going to adapt.”
But he defended farmers.
“I don’t like agricul-
ture being impugned, when
actually it’s already chang-
ing, and they’re not using
this stuff,” he said.
The volume of insec-
ticides used in the U.S.
declined from 99 million
pounds in 2000 to 60 mil-
lion pounds in 2012, accord-
ing to a 2017 EPA report.
Four million to 8 million
pounds of chlorpyrifos were
used in 2012.
The EPA said farmers
shifted away from chlorpy-
rifos and other organo-
phosphates in favor of
other classes of pesticides.
Chlorpyrifos has been used
in U.S. agriculture since
1965.
Product makers vol-
untarily stopped using
chlorpyrifos
in
2000
for household purposes,
except in ant and roach
bait that came in childproof
packages.
More recent USDA fig-
ures for individual crops
suggest farmers are con-
tinuing to shift away from
chlorpyrifos, even as the
insecticide gets more atten-
tion, Felsot said.
“In a way, this whole
issue has jumped the shark,”
he said. “We’re not in the
real of scientific informa-
tion. We’re in the realm of
social aspects.”
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
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