Two local groups are getting help in widening access to emergency contraception.
Julie, a new healthcare company that launched in September, is partnering up with local organizations to increase access to emergency contraception, also known as the morning after pill.
This week, the company will be shipping about 200,000 emergency contraception pills to more than 20 organizations, including some that serve the Rio Grande Valley — Frontera Fund and South Texans for Reproductive Justice.
The two groups will receive the free emergency contraception on a quarterly basis for the foreseeable future.
The donations are part of the company’s Julie for All program, which launched with the goal of increasing access to emergency contraception.
“We knew from the very beginning that we didn’t want this company to just be about product and content,” said Amanda E/J Morrison, Julie co-founder and president. “We always wanted to make an impact beyond that — to be meaningful, to move the needle — and we felt like that was always going to be with our impact work.”
Morison said they asked themselves how they could show up in communities and how to make their service personal because they felt that was missing between people and health care.
They did that by partnering with various nonprofits that already exist within communities across the country.
For Frontera Fund, the partnership is significant, especially now, because of how restrictive abortion has become across the country and, of course, in Texas where it’s nearly completely banned in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that rolled back abortion rights last year.
Frontera Fund is a nonprofit organization based in the Rio Grande Valley that funded abortions and related expenses before the ban.
“Prior to Dobbs v. Jackson, when abortion was still legal in Texas, we were providing our callers with post-abortion care kits and in those care kits, it included pain medication, heating pads, snacks, menstrual products and Plan B,” said Cathy Torres, the organizing manager for Frontera Fund. “This way, people had sort of a wholistic approach to their after-care, after they received their abortions.”
But a lot has changed since then, Torres said. They haven’t been able to provide those kits since they don’t fund abortions anymore. However, they do provide emergency contraceptives that they give out at events where their organization has a table setup to provide information about their organization.
With the Julie products, Torres said they plan to continue handing them out at such events at the university, out in the community, in downtown McAllen or other places where there are people who would benefit from free emergency contraception.
The pills can be hard to access for people of limited means, Torres said. They can cost upwards of $40 to $50, especially if it’s a name brand product.
While some places might have them for about $20, Torres said they can still be difficult to obtain because of how disenfranchised the Valley is and because transportation can be a major hurdle to some.
“People can’t always run to the store the morning after just to purchase a pill and not everyone has $20, $40, $50,” Torres said.
However, there are other organizations locally that are also available for free emergency contraception like South Texans for Reproductive Justice who have also partnered with Julie.
STRJ has a free emergency contraceptive program through which someone can fill out a form online and the organization will mail the medication to them.
“There are clinics like Access Esperanza clinic who give out emergency contraceptives for free as well,” Torres added. “Any clinic that offers Title X services, you can get that free to low cost.”
Torres said Frontera Fund is able to reach more people at events but acknowledged that that reach is limited.
“We have limited capacity so, generally speaking, it is difficult to acquire emergency contraceptives right then and there when you need because there is a time frame as to when you can take it,” Torres said.
Torres explained that emergency contraceptives are best taken the morning after having sex without a condom or sex where you may think you might be at risk for pregnancy.
It can be taken up to 72 hours after intercourse to prevent the pregnancy from even starting.
“A common misconception is that it’s an abortion pill and it absolutely is not,” Torres said. “Emergency contraceptives are exactly that.”
With their partnership with Julie, Torres said they’re hoping to go into other parts of the community they haven’t reached yet to see what that need is and offer emergency contraceptives to them.
That need will determine how many units of emergency contraception Julie will be sending in the following quarters. However, how much Julie donates overall will be based on the company’s earnings from the previous quarter.
Morison said their partners will tell them how much they need and they will donate them, no questions asked.
“Our ultimate goal is that we get to everybody that needs it but in the meantime, as we grow this program, we really wanted to make sure we were spreading out the need,” Morison said. “This is our pledge to ourselves, our brand and our customers that we have determined that this is how we will make an impact, meaningful impact in health care, and it will be a part of our operations.”
