Medicare funding for telehealth has led to a surge in demand for phone services prescribing medical abortion drugs and should be continued, advocates say.

Previously women accessing medical abortion via telehealth have been paying hundreds of dollars out-of-pocket on top of the price of the PBS-listed abortion drugs.

But that has changed with MBS telehealth, says Professor Danielle Mazza.

The chair of general practice at Monash University in Melbourne says many GPs have for the first time begun bulk-billing their telehealth consults for medical termination, while others have dropped fees.