A Global Telehealth First: Women Help Women Begins Producing Abortion Pill Combipack
Women Help Women, a global feminist telehealth organization, has taken a major step by beginning to produce its own abortion pill combipack. The initiative aims to make abortion care safer, simpler and more accessible, especially in countries where services are criminalized, stigmatized or not publicly funded.
In many parts of the world, formal health systems do not provide abortion care. As a result, more women are turning to abortion pills outside traditional medical settings. Women Help Women has been central to this shift, offering abortion pills and clear guidance on how to use them safely, particularly in regions where legal and practical barriers are high.
After more than ten years of relying on pharmaceutical companies, the organization has decided to take control of production. Its co executive directors, Kinga Jelinska and Lucía Berro Pizzarossa, announced that Women Help Women is now working directly with manufacturers in India to produce its own combipack containing mifepristone and misoprostol. The goal is to reduce dependence on commercial suppliers and increase resilience in access pathways.
Jelinska describes the move as a strategic necessity. Women Help Women was already assuming legal and political risks by sharing information and distributing pills. Controlling production reduces vulnerability to market disruptions and political pressure, while allowing the organization to respond more directly to the needs of abortion seekers.
The new combipack reflects how abortion pills are actually used. It includes one tablet of mifepristone and eight tablets of misoprostol, suitable for use up to twelve weeks of pregnancy. Standard packs usually include only four misoprostol tablets, even though additional doses are often helpful and are recognized by the World Health Organization as beneficial. The extra tablets provide reassurance and reduce the need to seek additional medication, which can be risky or impossible in restrictive settings.
The packaging itself has also been redesigned. It is smaller, lighter and easier to send discreetly by mail. It uses less plastic, weighs less and takes up less space, reducing both mailing costs and environmental impact. This approach links access to abortion care with broader concerns such as sustainability and climate responsibility.
Women Help Women believes this innovation can reshape abortion care by putting more control in the hands of users rather than institutions, laws or markets. The organization argues that abortion does not need to be complicated, intimidating or stigmatized, and that with the right information and tools, people can safely manage their own care.
Taking control of production is part of a broader mission to decriminalize, destigmatize and demedicalize abortion. For Berro Pizzarossa, self managed abortion represents a shift in power. Abortion pills allow people to be their own providers when they have access to accurate information, challenging long held ideas that abortion must be difficult or exclusively controlled by doctors.
Women Help Women also criticizes the lack of innovation by the pharmaceutical industry. While many drugs are continually redesigned to improve user experience, misoprostol has remained unchanged for decades. The organization sees this not as a technical limitation, but as a lack of political and social will to improve abortion experiences.
Producing the combipack has already reduced costs by at least twenty five percent, making access more affordable. According to Jelinska, the goal is not simply to make pills cheaper, but to make them consistently accessible across different legal and social contexts. Feminist networks often rely on flexible and local solutions, from couriers to community distribution, and having control over production supports this diversity.
Distribution of the new combipack began in Europe in October, starting with Poland and expanding to other countries. The next phase includes collaboration with MAMA, a network of organizations working across sub Saharan Africa.
Since its founding in 2014, Women Help Women has supported more than one hundred thousand women worldwide. It currently assists around twenty thousand people each year and continues to grow. In Poland, where abortion laws are extremely restrictive, the organization is one of the largest providers of abortion pills and information.
Women Help Women also collaborates with other telehealth abortion organizations and encourages them to adopt the combipack as a way to support the feminist self managed abortion movement. While it does not currently provide pills directly in the United States, it runs an information and training project that supports safe self managed abortion in states with abortion bans.
The organization sees the combipack as only the beginning. Research and development are already underway for additional products in abortion and reproductive health. For Women Help Women, owning the means of production is both a practical and political step toward ensuring that abortion care remains accessible, safe and centered on the needs of those who use it.
