As anti-choice politicians continue to tighten their stranglehold on reproductive rights, groups that provide reproductive and sexual health care are turning to creative solutions.
Last week Planned Parenthood announced that it will expand its Planned Parenthood Direct app—which provides remote access to birth control, treatment for urinary tract infections, and other health care advice—from twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia to all fifty by the end of 2020.
“Planned Parenthood is continually looking for new ways to reach people with the care they need, and we’re proud to be a leader in using technology and innovation to expand people’s access to health care and information,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, acting president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America in a statement. “As politicians across the country try to restrict or block access to critical reproductive and sexual health care, the Planned Parenthood Direct app is just one part of the work we do to ensure that more people can get the care they need, no matter where they are.”
In the first half of 2019, states enacted fifty-eight new abortion restrictions, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Many of these are partial or complete abortion bans, which anti-choice advocates hope will give a more conservative U.S. Supreme Court an opportunity to undercut the protections of Roe v. Wade. Other laws are aimed at making it so expensive or difficult to provide reproductive and sexual health care that they amount to de facto bans. Women in Missouri and five other states have only a single clinic left providing abortion care.
“While the Trump Administration may have given up on you, Planned Parenthood never will.”
The Trump Administration’s gag rule preventing organizations that receive Title X funding from providing or referring patients to clinics that provide abortions has pressured health care providers to explore new options.
After multiple legal challenges failed to prevent implementation of the gag rule, Planned Parenthood decided in August to walk away from Title X funding. The organization had participated in the program since its inception fifty years ago. And before its exit, Planned Parenthood served 40 percent of Title X clients, often as the only local reproductive health care provider.
Johnson assured Planned Parenthood patients that the organization’s decision to walk away from Title X was a setback but not a defeat. “I want our patients to know: while the Trump Administration may have given up on you, Planned Parenthood never will,” she said in a statement, adding that the gag rule will “hit hardest people struggling to make ends meet—including those people in rural areas and communities of color.”
In 2018, Planned Parenthood released its Care for All plan, a three-part strategy for overcoming increasing barriers to abortion access. The approach featured telemedicine and technological innovation as two important approaches to continuing to provide abortion services.
Planned Parenthood's “Roo” sends users to Chat/Text, which research shows has led to increased health center visits, greater use of condoms, and more familiarity with birth control.
Those same approaches have now become an important avenue of access for a broader range of services as funding and restrictions continue to make it harder for individuals to access reproductive and sexual health care.
The free Planned Parenthood Direct app, for example, allows users to request birth control or treatment for urinary tract infections. The app also helps users find the nearest health center. After answering a series of questions similar to those asked during an office visit, users receive a response from a clinician within one business day.
In addition to the app, Planned Parenthood launched Roo, a chatbot launched earlier this year that answers questions like, “How do I tell someone I like them?” and “What will happen to me if I masturbate too much?” as well as “Where is the nearest Planned Parenthood clinic?” A live chat option provides an opportunity to get real-time feedback from a health educator on topics ranging from pregnancy to sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs.
Everyone has the right to in-person reproductive and sexual health care. But in this political moment—in which anti-choice politicians seem determined to prevent appropriate access—digital solutions may become an important avenue of access for a broader range of healthcare services for those who need them most.
Nearly four million people were served by Title X-funded providers in 2017. The vast majority of patients, 89 percent, qualified for subsidized or no-cost services. Sixty-five percent had family incomes at or below the poverty level; 51 percent were patients of color.
These vulnerable patients depend on Planned Parenthood for care. A Guttmacher Institute study found that in 103 counties, Planned Parenthood served 100 percent of women receiving publicly funded contraceptives. Planned Parenthood also provides other Title X-funded services ranging from STD testing to cancer screenings and wellness exams.
A common anti-choice narrative is that Planned Parenthood is unnecessary because other community health centers could absorb the organization’s patients. The numbers simply don’t support that premise. This reality leaves Planned Parenthood in the position of finding a way around shrinking federal funding and growing restrictions.
The Planned Parenthood Direct app is free and currently available in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.