Advertisements that promote the abortion pill will be on gas stations in West Virginia and Kentucky in the coming weeks.
Mayday HealthA non-profit health education based in New York will lead the advertisements up to 104 national gas stations up to and including 7 September. The campaign started on August 11.
The advertisements say: “You don’t want to be pregnant? More information on Mayday Health.”
Executive director Liv Raisner said it is crucial to advertise at gas stations, which serve as community shubs in rural areas.
“Many national provinces in West Virginia and Kentucky have little or no OB-Gyn providers. Some have lost their only hospitals, their only clinics,” said Raisner. “So routine education and preventive reproductive health information is much more difficult to open through traditional medical channels. And that is why we have decided to advertise on gas stations.”
The organization started after the Supreme Court was destroyed Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion in 2022.
“We heard these sobering statistics that only 10 percent of Americans even knew what abortion pills were,” said Raisner. “And closed with clinics, reproductive options were very limited for women in the United States. We knew that a huge educational campaign had to be performed to inform people that they still have options.”
According to the Guttmacher Institute, In 2023, the abortion for medication accounted for 63 percent of all abortions in the United States, an increase of 53 percent in 2020.
In 2022, the laws of West -Virginia approved a law that prohibits abortion with scary exceptions. Earlier this summer, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed the prohibition In a challenge from the manufacturer of Abortus Pills Genbiopro.
Although abortion is in most cases illegal in West Virginia, Raisner said that the organization is not afraid of legal consequences of the campaign.
“We are not worried about advertising because we do not sell, distribute or pack abortus pills,” they said. “We only distribute the first amendment-protected freedom of expression. So if someone wants to find us, is where they first come the first amendment.”
Earlier this year, Mayday Health launched a digital billboard and Poster campaign in Tennessee and an air campaign Above the Indy 500.
Although abortion is usually illegal in West Virginia, states with abortion prohibitions can have problems to send out-of-state providers and entities pills to people within their borders.
Since the Supreme Court has been shot Roe v. Wade22 States and Washington, DC have established protective laws that protect patients, suppliers and people who help with abortion against the reach of states where it is illegal, According to Kff. Some shields protect providers who send abortion pills to people in states with abortion prohibitions.
Earlier this year, The Senate of West Virginia has approved a bill aimed at providers outside the state That would have made it a crime to prescribe or distribute medicines that are used for abortion to people in West Virginia, unless the abortion is legal. The bill was not included by the House of Representatives.
West Virginia attorney -general JB McCuskey Recently signed On a letter in which the congress is encouraged to prohibit the shield laws and to call them “flagrant attempts to hinder the ability of states to maintain penalty laws within their limits.”
“People in [states with abortion bans] Should be and are authorized to make their own decisions, “said Raisner.
The website leads people to sites where they can order abortion medication.
People who visit Mayday Health Are also linked to a helpline where they can get free, private advice about the specific abortion laws, they said. The group encourages website visitors to reach a hotline where a group of doctors give free advice.
Raisner said it is also important for people to know that abortion pills are safe and effective.
“There is so much wrong information because of the anti-choice movement about the dangers of abortion pills, and it’s just not true,” said Raisner. “Abortus pills are so safe that they are even sold without a prescription abroad.”
“Clinics close throughout the country, but people everywhere still have the power to make the choices that are suitable for their reproductive health,” they said.
This story was originally reported by Lori Kersey for West Virginia Watch. West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a non -profit news network supported by subsidies and a coalition of donors such as a 501C (3) public charity institution. West Virginia Watch retains editorial independence. Contact the editor Leann Ray for questions: [email protected].
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