A number of startups offering at-home abortion pills are hoping to fill the void if the Supreme Court strikes down a national right to the procedure by overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision in the coming weeks.
Several state legislatures have approved restrictions on abortion in anticipation of the decision delineated in a leaked draft opinion by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.
“People are having a moment of reckoning and understand that abortion access will be a really big problem for the foreseeable future,” Kiki Freedman, CEO of Hey Jane, told CNN in a report on companies that offer the drugs, including Choix and Just the Pill.
Ms. Freedman told the outlet there has been a nine-fold increase in telehealth patients per day compared to last year and her company has doubled its clinical team since a restrictive Texas law went into effect in September.
The abortion “pill” consists of two drugs — mifepristone and misoprostol. It was approved in 2000, and accounts for more than half of abortions in the U.S. after the Food and Drug Administration relaxed rules on online pharmacy prescription and delivery at the start of the pandemic.
The looming Supreme Court decision would likely shift abortion rights back to the states, meaning some women in certain states would have to travel to seek the procedure.
Abortion pill companies told CNN they are seeing a spike in demand ahead of the decision but some geographic limits will apply.
Choix requires patients to have a shipping address within one of the states it serves, while Hey Jane requires patients to be within the accessible state for both the consultation and treatment.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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