WASHINGTON STATE — A Planned Parenthood affiliate launched an initiative called "Just In Case Abortion Pills" on Thursday, allowing people in Washington state and Hawaiʻi to obtain mifepristone and misoprostol in advance to end an early pregnancy. Patients can pick up the medications in person at one of 16 health centers across the two states.

The affiliate will remain available to patients who use the advance-provided pills for up to 11 months after dispensing to answer questions and review gestational age and the expected process. Mifepristone and misoprostol have a shelf life of about two years, with the expiration date printed on the packaging.

"As evidence supporting this model of care has continued to grow, and with supportive policy environments in Washington and in Hawai'i, this really is the right time for us to step into this space," said Rebecca Gibron, president and CEO of the affiliate. Colleen McNicholas, chief of medical affairs, said the program maintains continuity of care. "Not only are we available to you today to get you that medication to have it on hand, but also at whatever point during the process you need us," McNicholas said.

McNicholas said clinicians would help patients interpret their pregnancies when the time came to use the medication. "We are still available to them as their provider to answer those questions, to review — how do I know how far along I am? What do we expect?" she said.

A range of telehealth organizations have offered advance prescriptions of abortion medication for the past several years. It is legal for patients to have abortion medication on hand in 49 states; Louisiana made the medications controlled substances in 2024. Patients have cited cost as a barrier to obtaining the pills because they are not using insurance to offset the price.

U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith has objected to advance prescribing of the medications. "American women are stockpiling the abortion pills through advanced prescribing from abortion companies and providers," Hyde-Smith said. "My husband has a doctor's appointment Friday morning for a sinus medication that he can't get refilled until he sees a doctor. It blows me away that you can get this with no doctor oversight, and it is a drug that will literally cause you intentionally to have an abortion and end your pregnancy and the life of that child," she said.

The Republican-led Congress cut Planned Parenthood off from Medicaid funding for one year, and that funding will be reinstated in July unless Congress passes a new law.