Telemedicine clinic offers abortion pills to women before they’re pregnant

A telemedicine clinic is now offering abortion pills to women in a few select states before they are pregnant for future use.

Choix is selling abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol through a service it calls the “advance provision” to those who qualify in California, Illinois, Maine, New Mexico, and Colorado, where the company is licensed to operate.

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“At Choix, we understand that mistakes happen, birth control is not perfect, and circumstances change. Advance provision gives people an extra insurance policy by having abortion pills on hand before you even need them,” the company website reads.

Women 15 years of age or older in California, Illinois, Maine, and New Mexico and 18 and older in Colorado without parental notification can purchase the abortion pills for anywhere from $175 to $350. In order to obtain the pills, they have to fill out a questionnaire, attach photo identification, and then sign consent forms sent by a provider.

Recipients are only able to obtain one set of abortion pills and can request another once those have been used or expire. The abortion pills sent consist of two different drugs. The first, mifepristone, blocks the hormone progesterone needed for a pregnancy to continue, and the second medicine, misoprostol, is taken either immediately after or up to 48 hours later to end the pregnancy. Mifepristone has a shelf-life of about five years, while misoprostol tablets have a shelf-life of approximately two years. The abortion pills are authorized for pregnancies up to 10 weeks.

Medication abortions accounted for over half of all abortions in the United States in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Last year, the Food and Drug Administration permanently lifted a requirement that medication abortions be prescribed in person, allowing people to receive them through the mail.

Several states restrict access to the pills and how they can be prescribed. Nineteen states prohibit providing a medication abortion through telemedicine.

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Several companies offer abortion pills through the mail, as women in states where abortion is restricted look for ways to access the procedure in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Another telehealth company, Hey Jane, offers abortion pills to those 18 and older in New York, California, New Jersey, New Mexico, Colorado, Illinois, and Washington. An overseas nonprofit organization based in Austria, Aid Access, also ships abortion pills to people in the U.S.