'Your birth control is next': Health startups are using the repeal of Roe v. Wade in new ad campaigns for emergency contraception
- Health startups Favor and Stix are using Dobbs to advertise morning after pills, the WSJ reports.
- Another health startup Nurx has cut the price of its pill 25% to $14.99 to encourage stockpiling.
Digital health startups have jumped on the US Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in new ad campaigns for emergency contraceptives, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Favor, formerly the Pill Club, has launched an ad campaign with the tag line: "They're coming for your abortion. Your birth control is next."
Stix, a startup that also sells pregnancy tests and ovulation kits, pivoted its marketing budget toward advertising its new morning after pill, Restart, CEO Jamie Norwood told the Journal.
Billboards advertising Restart have messages such as: "In Missouri, you're allowed to own a baby tiger. Just not your reproductive rights."
Since the Court's ruling on Friday, fears that access to emergency contraception is under threat have spread.
Many women are stockpiling the plan-B morning after pill, in case they need to protect against the possibility of pregnancy, spurring CVS and other retailers to place limits on the number of pills people can buy.
A concurring opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas further stoked worries that the Court would next target access to birth control methods.
Some direct-to-consumer health startups are stepping up to meet the escalation in demand. Favor still allows purchases in bulk of up to 10 courses of morning after pills. Reproductive health provider Nurx is even encouraging stockpiling among customers whose access to abortion has been cut off or curtailed.
Kelly Gardiner, head of communications for Nurx's parent company, told the Wall Street Journal that the company had cut the price of its morning after pill, New Day, by 25% so as "to make it more affordable for folks who need to stock up."
At present, emergency contraception is legal across the United States. However, 12 states allow health care providers such as pharmacists to refuse to offer contraceptive services to patients who ask for them, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights research organization.