ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A Planned Parenthood affiliate is challenging Alaska’s ban on providing medication abortion via telehealth.

Alaska’s state constitution has been interpreted to provide sweeping protections for abortion access under its privacy clause. But a longstanding Alaska statute has been interpreted by the administration of Gov. Mike Dunleavy to require that abortions be provided in a hospital or clinic.

Former Attorney General Treg Taylor determined in 2023 that medications used to induce abortions may not be sent to patients by mail, instead requiring Alaskans to travel to a clinic in person to receive the drugs.

Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaiʻi, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky is asking in a lawsuit filed Thursday in Alaska’s Superior Court to invalidate that prohibition.

Medication abortion has increasingly become the preferred method for women seeking to end their pregnancies in Alaska and across the United States. The method accounted for just over a third of abortions performed and reported in Alaska in 2021. Last year, it accounted for 60%.

Taylor, a Republican who resigned last year to run for governor, said in his 2023 determination that “no matter what, the pill is still administered in a clinic, where the prescribing doctor is either present or virtually present through telehealth.”

The determination was published in response to a decision from the Food and Drug Administration to remove an in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone.

Alaska law states that abortions must be “performed in a hospital or other facility approved for the purpose by the Department of Health.” The statute dates back to 1970, when Alaska became one of the first states in the U.S. to decriminalize abortion. At the time, the abortion-causing medication mifepristone had not been developed.

Taylor wrote in 2023 that the statute “has always operated to prohibit the sale of mifepristone directly to patients, whether by mail or in person.”

In a filing to the Anchorage Superior Court, Planned Parenthood argues that the Alaska law “for no good reason, delays and denies patients’ access to an essential, constitutionally protected form of health care.” Planned Parenthood is asking for a preliminary injunction, which — if granted — would lift the telehealth ban while the court case proceeds.

The only provider in Alaska to widely publicize its abortion services is Planned Parenthood, which operates clinics in Anchorage and Fairbanks. That leaves tens of thousands of Alaskans needing to travel hundreds of miles to the nearest clinic.

“It is well-documented that such travel distances often delay, and sometimes prevent, patients from accessing abortion care. By imposing these burdens, this telehealth ban violates Alaskans’ fundamental right to abortion under the Alaska Constitution,” Planned Parenthood argues.

Mail-order dispensing of mifepristone is already widespread in states that allow it. Research has found that dispensing abortion pills by mail works as well as requiring patients to get them in person.

Acting Attorney General Cori Mills said in a written statement after the lawsuit was filed Thursday that the Department of Law “will have to review the complaint” before commenting on 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,” Mills wrote.

This is not the first time Planned Parenthood has sued the state in an effort to lift restrictions on abortion access.

In 2019, the organization sued over a requirement that only physicians provide abortions, precluding other advanced practice clinicians from performing the procedures. A state judge found in Planned Parenthood’s favor in 2024. The Dunleavy administration appealed the case to the Alaska Supreme Court, which has yet to issue a ruling.

The Alaska Supreme Court previously ruled in Planned Parenthood’s favor after it challenged a 2010 citizens initiative that put in place a parental notification law.

The Alaska lawsuit is the latest chapter in a nationwide battle over abortion access, which has focused in recent years on medication abortion as it has become more common.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a decision last month, preserved access to mifepristone while a lawsuit plays out in lower federal courts. That underlying litigation is over whether mifepristone can be obtained by mail.

Separately, anti-abortion groups are asking the FDA — which first approved the use of mifepristone in 2020 — to implement new restrictions on the drug, including a telehealth ban.

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