Online abortion counseling
Over the past few years, HowToUse has been referring women who are seeking access to medical abortion pills to three of our most established provider partners: www.safe2choose.org, www.womenhelp.org, and www.womenonweb.org. We refer women to these organizations specifically because we know them, we trust them, and we deeply respect their commitment to ensuring that all women have access to a safe abortion option.
But on July 1st, the team at safe2choose announced that they were planning to make a few internal changes. Rather than continuing to directly provide safe abortion pills, safe2choose is now fully channeling its energy and resources towards its unique online counseling platform.
Visit the safe2choose website, and chances are you’ll see a pop up box in the lower right hand corner inviting you to chat. Type in a question or comment, and your message will be sent directly to a trained medical abortion counselor who is standing by in real time to talk with you.
HowToUse has been a longstanding fan of the safe2choose live chat service. Because we wanted to learn more about live chat and where it’s headed in the future, we sat down to interview one of safe2choose’s trained medical abortion counselors.
How long have you worked at safe2choose and what do you love most about the work?
I’ve worked for safe2choose since it began as a pilot project a little over 3 years ago. I enjoy supporting women through their abortion process to ensure they receive quality and dignified abortion care.
safe2choose went through a transition on July 1st. Can you tell us a little bit about what changed and why?
It became increasingly complicated to facilitate access to the pills. In addition to this, the majority of women contacting us already had the pills. What they were asking for was proper instructions on how to use them and support before, during and after the medical abortion process. We recognized how valuable our counseling services were and wanted to focus more on this aspect of the work.
Other safe abortion websites may provide similar services. What is unique about safe2choose counseling? What sets safe2choose apart from other provider websites?
The other safe abortion websites that safe2choose is aware of provide quality abortion care. safe2choose has even learned from the years of experience that some of these organizations have and have been generous enough to share with us.
With that said, perhaps the one thing that is different about safe2choose is we provide live chat services, which is a quicker way to communicate with users as opposed to them waiting for an email response, which unfortunately cannot be immediate due to the amount of emails we receive each day.
safe2choose prides itself in having a team of diligently trained counselors who are qualified to give really great medical abortion care. It’s not just about giving factual information about medical abortion but how we do that and how we treat each user that come to us with concerns, fears, worries, etc. We treat each user as an individual, each with a unique context and story.
The way people are treated while trying to access any health care service can make all the difference in the world. Our job is to do our best to ensure that each women that comes to us has a safe abortion in all sense of the word safe: both physically safe and also emotionally safe.
What can we expect from safe2choose moving forward? Will there be other changes to the website or services offered in the near future?
A bigger team, more languages covered, more specialized care (supporting women who are in the second trimester who have decided to use abortion pills at home, more specialized emotional care, wider range of information regarding sexual health, etc.)
Anything else you’d like women to know about safe2choose?
We are a really great team and we are continuously training our counselors in order to provide the best abortion care out there.
Like what you read? Check out safe2choose’s live chat service here. If you or someone you know needs access to safe abortion information and resources, visit us online, or follow us on any of our social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Flipboard.