Minnesota-based Just The Pill providing women with mobile reproductive health care
MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota-based startup is hitting the road for abortion rights, but this is not a policy campaign.
Just The Pill is an organization that offers reproductive health services to women via telehealth and a mobile clinic that its directors think will be a model for the future of this health care.
RELATED: One year after Roe v. Wade's reversal, warnings about abortion become reality
"We have a lot to build back after Roe," medical director Dr. Julie Amaon told WCCO, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that rescinded a national right to abortion. "And even before Roe fell we always knew it was a skeleton, right, that it still mattered where you lived, you know, what your income was, and that depended on how you got this essential health care."
Founded in 2020, the clinic has already treated nearly 6,000 patients, according to Dr. Amaon. The abortions are predominantly via medication and in the first trimester.
"The complication rate for medication abortion and procedures is very low, so what we're doing to make sure our patients are safe is we're making connections in all the places we see patients," she said. "Our patients are anywhere in the reproductive health range of years. We see minors and we see women with uteruses up to 45 or 46 years old. Most of them, 60%, already have a child they care for."
Minnesota Democrats in the state legislature are considering passing a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights next session, which could put the issue before voters as early as next fall, House Speaker Melissa Hortman said Tuesday.
RELATED: Minnesota Democrats are discussing abortion rights constitutional amendment, House Speaker says
Access to the procedure is already protected by a 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court decision and a recent state law that states people have a "fundamental right" to abortion, contraception and fertility treatments. An amendment would add language to the state constitution, another layer of defense.
"One in four people in their reproductive years will choose abortion or have had an abortion, so this is very common," Dr. Amaon said. "That's the thing people don't know."
The team of five at Just The Pill includes two physicians, and its mobile clinic is currently serving patients in Colorado. The organization said there are three more vans on order, however, and they plan to return to Minnesota, as well as travel to Wyoming and Montana.
