The Most Popular Digital Abortion Clinics, Ranked by Data Privacy

A new class of health care startups has emerged in response to the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the federal right to abortion last year. Telehealth companies that provide abortion pills are surging in popularity. These “digital abortion clinics” connect patients with health care providers who are able to prescribe mifepristone and misoprostol, a course of care commonly described as the “abortion pill.”

The Surge in Popularity and Accessibility

Medication abortion is currently the most common way to terminate a pregnancy, yet only 1 in 4 adults are familiar with it, according to a recent study by KFF. These clinics operate in different ways—some provide live video visits with doctors and nurse practitioners, while others offer asynchronous counseling—but many have experienced a record number of patient orders over the past year. According to Elisa Wells, cofounder of the nonprofit Plan C, “Their pricing is quite affordable, and there’s convenience in placing an order and getting pills delivered to your mailbox in three to four days.”

Recent data suggests that telehealth clinics have been effective in expanding access to abortion care, especially for people living in remote areas or in states where the procedure has been criminalized. Thanks to a new series of “shield laws” protecting clinicians from out-of-state prosecution—passed in 12 states, including New York, Maryland, and Illinois—these clinics are positioned to expand their reach even further.

The Privacy Factor: Claims vs. Reality

A common belief about virtual clinics is that they offer more discretion than their brick-and-mortar counterparts. “There’s definitely a privacy factor—these sites don’t ask a lot of questions,” says Wells. In a 2020 study of over 6,000 abortion seekers, 39 percent reported choosing a telemedicine option specifically to preserve their privacy. Leaders at digital abortion clinics like Hey Jane and Choix have publicly expressed their commitment to users’ privacy as they grow. In a recent interview, Hey Jane cofounder Kiki Freedman said that the service is “HIPAA-compliant and encrypted.”

However, while some providers’ intentions seem genuine, privacy experts have pointed out that their services may not be as secure as users expect them to be (even if they are compliant with US law). Does HIPAA protect all information sent to telehealth providers? For telehealth abortion clinics, HIPAA compliance is just one part of the puzzle. Last July, a team of researchers at the Markup reported that Hey Jane’s site passed along user information to Meta and Google, the world’s largest digital advertisers.

Analyzing Popular Abortion-by-Mail Providers

To find out which virtual abortion clinics take users’ privacy seriously, we teamed up with experts to analyze the privacy policies of several key providers. Below is a summary of the services and platforms involved in the analysis:

• Hey Jane: Publicly described as HIPAA-compliant and encrypted; however, reported to have passed user info to digital advertisers.
• Choix: Highlighted its HIPAA-compliant texting platform; representatives suggest they do not check IP addresses.
• Wisp: One of the five popular abortion-by-mail providers analyzed for privacy policy security.
• Carafem: A major provider analyzed to determine how users can approach these services with safety in mind.
• Aid Access: A digital clinic evaluated by experts regarding the handling of personal information.

Digital Risks and Legal Implications

While providers may not restrict access via IP addresses, our analysis found that most providers readily collected them. It’s not uncommon for vulnerable data to end up in the hands of third-party brokers who compile digital profiles of users before selling their information to the highest bidder. Michele Gilman, professor of law at the University of Baltimore, says: “Reproductive health data is being sold and transported into a much larger system.”

Prosecutors have used women’s text messages and search histories as evidence in a number of abortion-related cases. Because of this precedent, users should proceed with caution when handing their personal information over to telehealth providers. To make matters worse, the absence of a comprehensive federal privacy law leaves the burden of evaluating privacy policies to individual users, even as these policies have gotten longer and more difficult to decipher in recent years.