Arkansas state lawmakers have filed bills that would ban the use of telemedicine to provide women who have limited access to reproductive health care with medication abortions.

SB 53, filed by state Sen. Missy Irvin (R-Mountain View), and HB 1076, filed by state Rep. Julie Mayberry (R-Hensley), would require that a pregnant person who is seeking a medication abortion be physically in a room with a physician when the medication is administered.

Telemedicine abortion care is not currently available in the state. “We want to make sure that we stop it before it starts. It’s so much easier to prevent bad medicine than it is to stop it after it’s started,” Mayberry said, as reported by Arkansas Public Radio.

“I’m not against all telemedicine,” Mayberry added. “Certainly it allows some of our rural areas to get some medical attention that might need it but this procedure you really need to have a doctor around for.”

“Whether it’s a surgical abortion or a chemical abortion, I think it’s important for the safety of the health of the mother to make sure that it’s done in the presence of a physician,” Irvin said during a press conference, reported the Arkansas Times.

Irvin filed a nearly identical bill, SB 913, during the 2013 legislative session. The same year Irvin also co-sponsored SB 134, a fetal heartbeat ban that would have outlawed abortion as early as 12 weeks’ gestation.

Abortion providers use telemedicine to offer women who do not live near a reproductive health provider, many of them in rural areas, with access to abortion care. At a local health clinic, where the medication is dispensed, a patient will sit with a nurse while communicating with her doctor via video conferencing tools.

Anti-choice lawmakers around the country have introduced several bills over the last few years to ban the use of telemedicine abortion.

Abortion care is highly restricted in Arkansas, and access is limited. There are only three clinics that provide abortion care in the state: one in Fayetteville and two in Little Rock.

“At Planned Parenthood we believe a woman should be trusted to make her own medical decisions along with her physician, and we believe that professional medical associations such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which has spoken out against political interference such as this, should be making decisions about health care, not politicians,” Angie Remington, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, told the Arkansas Times.

Research has shown that telemedicine abortion is safe and effective. A study by the Journal Obstetrics & Gynecology found that women who received telemedicine abortion care at Iowa Planned Parenthood clinics between November 2008 and October 2009 had a successful abortion 99 percent of the time, compared with 97 percent of the time among women who saw a doctor in person.

Ibis Reproductive Health has concluded that “restricting telemedicine for medication abortion is not evidence based, and limits women’s access to high-quality abortion care, particularly in rural areas.”

Arkansas Republicans have a majority in both the state house and senate, and newly elected Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson is likely to support anti-choice legislation.

The bills have been sent to their chambers’ respective committees on public health, welfare, and labor, where they await further action.