When abortion restrictions have been in the news, many people have taken it as a reason to prepare by having abortion medications available in advance, even if they are not currently pregnant, NPR reported. Now, Planned Parenthood is moving from telehealth-only advance prescriptions to an initiative offered through a Planned Parenthood affiliate. The program, called “Just In Case Abortion Pills,” will launch in Washington and Hawaii, NPR said, and will give people access to the pills mifepristone and misoprostol ahead of any future decision to use them.
Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai’i, Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky President and CEO Rebecca Gibron said the timing is right for the organization to step into advance provision as evidence supporting that model of care continues to grow. She also pointed to what she described as supportive policy environments in Washington and in Hawai’i. Under the initiative, people in the two states can receive the medications with the understanding that they will be kept available for use later to end an early pregnancy.
NPR reported that the advance provision model is not brand-new in the United States. For years, a range of telehealth organizations have offered prescriptions of abortion medication in advance. Elisa Wells, co-founder of the medication-abortion information website Plan C, said the Planned Parenthood move matters because “the idea that you can get abortion pills by mail or that you can get them in advance is really new to a lot of people,” and that having a provider with Planned Parenthood’s “trust and name recognition” can broaden awareness and access.
Wells said geography and timing can make rapid care difficult in Hawaii and Washington, adding that “days and hours matter during pregnancy.” In her view, having the pills stocked in advance can be especially important when someone needs to act quickly. She also said the safety record of mifepristone and misoprostol—commonly used together for abortion—is well established, and that patients can legally have abortion medications on hand in most states, with Louisiana as an exception where the state made the medications controlled substances in 2024, NPR reported.
Most other advance-provision options, Wells said, have been offered through telehealth, but Planned Parenthood patients will also be able to obtain the medication in person. NPR reported that Planned Parenthood health centers—up to 16 centers in the two states—will be part of the program, allowing patients to get the pills directly as well as through the organization’s other access routes.
Planned Parenthood chief of medical affairs Dr. Colleen McNicholas said the organization will be available not only when patients want the medication but also later during the process. “Not only are we available to you today to get you that medication to have it on hand, but also at whatever point during the process you need us,” McNicholas said, adding that patients who return months later can ask questions about timing and pregnancy stage and get help reviewing what to expect.
NPR also included the account of a patient identified only as “Whit,” who said she ordered abortion pills in advance about four years ago after news about reproductive rights prompted her to stock up “just in case.” Whit, now 29 and living in the Chicago area, told NPR she learned about the approach while living abroad during the period around the leaked draft of the Roe decision in May 2022. She said she used the international organization AidAccess, filling out an online form requesting “advanced use,” and later used the pills about a year afterward. Whit said she used them within days of a missed period and described the experience as straightforward, saying it felt “literally like a period,” and that she would like others to have access to the same option.
Advance prescribing has also drawn criticism from anti-abortion rights advocates, NPR reported. In 2024, Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, who chairs the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, said the practice amounted to “stockpiling” abortion pills through advance prescribing, and said it is a drug intended to end a pregnancy. Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf responded that doctors have discretion in prescribing medications, telling Hyde-Smith in that exchange, “We don’t advocate stockpiling as a method, but we don’t regulate the practice of medicine.”
Supporters and researchers say the approach reflects broader international experience and medical guidance for self-managed use. Anna Fiastro, a research scientist at the University of Washington School of Medicine, said it is extremely hard to measure how many patients have abortion medication in their cabinets, but described the idea as catching on—particularly among residents in states with abortion bans. She pointed to World Health Organization guidance on self-managed use through the first trimester and said making the pills accessible can be a “very safe” and “very safe, and very effective” option, NPR reported.
As legal challenges continue around mifepristone access and how medication can be prescribed and mailed, some advocates for advance provision said news of court cases has increased demand. NPR reported that Elisa Wells said Louisiana’s lawsuit against the FDA has caused increased traffic to Plan C’s website, and that providers have told her they are seeing increased requests for advance provision. Wells said it makes sense to get pills in advance because the outcome of the case is uncertain, and she predicted demand for advance provision will spread as people see abortion pills as widely available, safe, and effective—an approach, she argued, that can’t easily be reversed.