Startups Providing Abortion Access Could Seek More Funding In Wake Of Roe Decision

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday, ending decades of Americans’ constitutional right to abortion access.

Now, it will be up to individual states to make decisions regarding abortion restrictions, with at least 13 states banning or severely restricting it immediately, according to The Washington Post.

Just two venture-backed startups that offer abortions through telehealth and medication are currently listed on Crunchbase. But they, and newcomers that aim to do the same, could seek and find more funding in the wake of the Supreme Court decision and new restrictions on abortions in many states.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration changed the rules around medication abortion, eliminating the requirement for a patient to see a provider at a clinic or hospital before they could receive the combination of pills, mifepristone and misoprostol, that are used to terminate an early pregnancy.

Medication abortion now accounts for more than half of the abortions in the United States, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Venture-backed providers

New York-based Hey Jane operates as online abortion clinic, mailing mifepristone and misoprostol to patients. The company has raised $3.6 million in funding so far from investors including Gaingels and Moving Capital, per Crunchbase data.

The company wants to raise a Series A round this year, Axios reported recently.

Hey Jane works like many other telehealth and online pharmacies: patients chat online with a provider before they’re mailed medication. The startup treats patients who are up to 10 weeks pregnant, the point of pregnancy progression for which medication abortion is approved.

San Rafael, California-based Choix provides sexual and reproductive health care in its home state, as well as Illinois and Colorado. Along with medication abortion, emergency contraception and birth control, it provides care for urinary tract infections, genital herpes and cold sores.

For medication abortion, patients must be in their first 10 weeks of pregnancy and over the age of 18 in Colorado and Illinois, or over the age of 16 in California.

The company, which was founded in 2020, has raised $1 million in funding from Elevate Capital, according to Crunchbase.

Photo of U.S. Supreme Court Building courtesy of Marlize van Romburgh.