A Planned Parenthood of Illinois health center is shown in Waukegan. The organization announced Monday it is collaborating with telehealth provider Hey Jane to expand access to abortion medication.
The Associated Press
Planned Parenthood of Illinois is joining up with Hey Jane, a telehealth provider, to increase abortion services in the state, officials announced Monday.
The New York-headquartered Hey Jane, founded in 2021, offers virtual counseling and access to abortion medication.
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, Planned Parenthood of Illinois has worked to expand abortion availability in the state, PPIL President Jennifer Welch said.
“Hey Jane is a reliable, efficient and confidential medication abortion service that provides the quality health care people have come to expect from PPIL. This partnership means easier access to the abortion care people need and deserve,” Welch said in a statement.
The partnership means Planned Parenthood will accept Hey Jane patients who qualify for procedural abortions, and PPIL clients can use Hey Jane to obtain medication to end a pregnancy.
The collaboration is important “in uncertain times,” Planned Parenthood officials said. Republican President-elect Donald Trump has said abortion should be left up to the states, 13 of which have a total ban on the procedure.
“Illinois has long been a haven for reproductive health care, and our hope with this partnership is that we can address the current — and future — influx of abortion-seekers to the state by supporting anyone who would be a good candidate for telehealth while making it easier for those requiring in-person attention to connect with PPIL,” Hey Jane CEO Kiki Freedman said in a statement.
Out-of-state patients coming to Illinois for abortion care rose from 11,307 in 2021 to 16,849 in 2022, according to the most recent state data.
Eleven states have restrictions on abortion from six to 22 weeks of pregnancy, according to KFF, a nonprofit health policy organization. Meanwhile, legal challenges to abortion and related medication are still percolating across the U.S.
Hey Jane offers consultations online and by phone. Prescriptions are provided by doctors and advanced practice clinicians, and abortion medications are sent by mail.
The name was inspired by “Jane,” an underground collective of Chicago-area female activists that offered safe abortions for women in the 1960s and early 1970s.