Mail order prescriptions: Is it the way going forward for reproductive care?
Groups such as Favor, formerly known as the Pill Club, have shown what birth control dissemination can look like going forward
Mail order prescriptions may be the future of reproductive care. Organizations such as Favor, formerly known as the Pill Club, have grown enormously popular among younger women who want to get birth control without having to go to a pharmacy. The antiquated notions of how and when women should get contraceptives is something it challenges.
“The idea of having to go in person to have a conversation with somebody just to have your birth control prescribed is kind of an outdated concept right now,” said Sarah Abboud, spokeswoman for Favor.
Abboud said the majority of their users were from Generation Z, or those under the age of 30. Favor mails birth control and Plan B. It doesn’t send abortion medications to its customers.
“It was really easy for them to kind of come to terms with having everything done online and then delivered to them,” Abboud said.
One of the things Favor also does is break down a lot of the obstacles that prevent women of color and other poor people from getting reproductive care. In many of those communities, the people are without transportation and there may be no medical treatment nearby.
“By virtue of being a digital provider, we're kind of removing a lot of the barriers that would otherwise disproportionately impact women of color,” Abboud said. “And so I think just by being a digital platform, we are able to help overcome some of those barriers to care that you see happening in a lot of those communities.”
Abboud anticipates seeing more challenges politically and legally now that Roe v Wade has been overturned. In the three days following the Supreme Court ruling, they saw a 5,000 percent spike in emergency contraception orders.
“That's a massive spike,” Abboud said.
Abboud said that many legislators are conflating emergency contraception to abortion.
“It's very intentional the way that they're talking about contraception and the way that they're conflating things like emergency contraception with abortion,” Abboud said. “It's to incite confusion and fear. And quite frankly, amongst many of our patients, that tactic is working.”