In yet another instance of profit before people, a Planned Parenthood affiliate is using its fiscal problems and the supposed threat posed by the current administration to justify offering chemical abortion access via a smart phone app.
Planned Parenthood of Illinois conceded “financial difficulties” and cited a purported “uncertain future” because of the Trump administration in announcing its PPDirect app last month and also referenced in-person visits to procure chemical abortion pills as something negative.
“Offering medication abortion through the PPDirect app allows patients to connect with us through their phone and removes the barrier of having to visit a health center,” Tonya Tucker, interim president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois, said.
Chemical abortion, a two-drug regiment consisting of mifepristone and misoprostol, makes up well over half of all U.S. abortions. Chemical abortions have become ubiquitous due to rolled back safety standards during the Obama and Biden administrations. Mifepristone is riskier than abortion proponents admit, and the risk is heightened perhaps most by the removal of the safety standard requiring an in-person doctor visit.
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Abortion providers have regularly stoked fear that their business’s are in danger from President Donald Trump, who has simply said that the abortion issue is now up to the states since the reversal of Roe v. Wade and given no indication he intends to pursue further restriction.
Converse to this abortion marketing strategy that puts convenience before women’s health and medical oversight, pregnancy help organizations emphasize human connection in their life-affirming work serving women.
The head of the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. and the world noted the conflict between abortion industry profit and women’s health and safety.
“In the post-Roe world, the abortion industry is at odds with itself as it prioritizes ideology and profit motives above common-sense protections for women,” said Jor-El Godsey, president of Heartbeat International.
Planned Parenthood of Illinois’s PPDirect app had already made birth control, UTI treatment, at-home STI testing, and “emergency contraception” available. The addition of offering chemical abortion drugs via the app is the abortion giant’s way of “expanding abortion care,” Planned Parenthood said, and this “expands access, reduces wait times … ” and “avoids unnecessary travel …”
Godsey noted how offering chemical abortion in this manner expands the risk for women exponentially.
“Promoting unfettered chemical abortions is at odds with compassionate and safe medical care,” he said.
The Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) detailed the risks associated with chemical abortion administered without proper medical oversight in its fact sheet Risks and Complications of Chemical Abortion. These included the absences of ultrasound to confirm gestational age and rule out other medical issues and abortion pills falling into the hands of traffickers and abusive partners.
CLI, the research arm of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, also cited ectopic pregnancy in its report as another grave concern.
“Only ultrasound can rule out an ectopic pregnancy,” it said. “Mifepristone cannot treat an ectopic pregnancy and can mask the symptoms of tubal rupture, putting women at risk of severe bleeding and death.”
Tweet This: Promoting unfettered chemical abortions is at odds with compassionate and safe medical care.
Planned Parenthood of Illinois indicated that information gathered via its app is sufficient in lieu of seeing a medical professional in person and pointed to not having “someone looking over your shoulder” while ordering chemical abortion drugs as a priority.
Its Interim Chief Medical Officer Dr. Virgil Reid told local news outlet WAND-TV that screening questions on gestational age of the pregnancy would gathered through the app and, “As long as the pregnancy can be adequately dated with the screening questions, our staff reviews what the patient submits and if everything is good, the medications get sent out."
In another remark pointing to other priorities taking precedence over safety, Reid, said, “What could be more private than pulling up an app in your home with no one looking over your shoulder? You're not answering any questions to a person, just to an app."
The Illinois Department of Public Health’s 2022 abortion statistics made available in January 2024 and compiled by CLI showed that:
- Abortions in Illinois increased in 2022 by 9% from 2021, with a total of 56,457 in 2022 and 51,797 in 2021.
- Drug-induced abortions also jumped by 17% and constituted 57% of the 2022 total.
- Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) estimates that Illinois’ 2022 abortion rate was 22.8 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44.
Planned Parenthood’s Illinois abortion market share was not available for the report.
