Innovations in Reproductive Healthcare Access

Innovations in Reproductive Health Access is a non-profit organization that incubates new advocacy, research and service-provision projects to increase the availability of high-quality reproductive healthcare.

The Period Pills Project expands access to options for fertility control that uphold reproductive freedom and prevent harm from unsafe abortion. Patients can take period pills when their menses are late and they do not want to be pregnant. These pills – either misoprostol alone, or with mifepristone – bring on bleeding and end any (possible) early pregnancies. Taking period pills may also be referred to as menstrual regulation or “bringing down” a period. This option embraces people’s lived experiences of uncertainty when their periods are late, and their desire to ensure non-pregnancy

Period pills are medications (mifepristone + misoprostol or misoprostol alone) that a person can take when their period is late and they don’t want to be pregnant. These are the same medications used for a medication abortion, but period pills are taken without confirming a pregnancy. Period pills are uterine evacuation medications. They trigger cramping and bleeding, which may be similar to or heavier than a regular period. People may also experience temporary side effects like chills and fever. If a person is pregnant, the medications will end the pregnancy in almost all cases. Period pills empower a person to manage a late period without knowing a potential pregnancy. This kind of fertility control can also be referred to as missed period pills, late period pills, bringing down a period, and menstrual regulation. Period pills are currently available via telemedicine in all fifty states and US territories.

The National Working Group on Period Pills was formed by Gynuity Health Projects in 2019 to expand access to medications that bring on a period when a person is at risk of unwanted pregnancy. The Working Group is a formal coalition of leaders in the reproductive health, rights and justice fields, and includes researchers, advocates, clinicians, and communications experts. We generate and analyze research, create communications strategies, support efforts to recruit period pill providers, and create movement-wide resources to inform partners about period pills with the end goal of making period pills widely available for patients at risk of pregnancy within the US. Individual member organizations have undertaken legal research, clinical research, qualitative research, public education, and the launch of a pilot providing pills in multiple states.