How one unmarked van is quietly delivering abortion pills on Colorado's border

Telehealth appointments make it easier for people with disabilities to access healthcare, including medication abortions, by allowing those in need to access care from the comfort of their own homes. For many people, this eliminates several access barriers they often face when seeking care. Post-Roe, medication abortion via telehealth visits accounts for 16% of all reported abortions.

The country’s only mobile vasectomy clinic, owned and operated by Esgar Guarín, works to get men to participate in contraception by getting a vasectomy, especially after the recent overturn of Roe v. Wade, and abortion bans across the country. Since the decision, there has been a massive spike in vasectomies. Throughout his career, Guarin has completed more than 3,000.

By working with a nonprofit, Las Libres, in Guanajuato, Mexico, volunteers are helping women access medication for abortions for free. Las Libres organizes the supply chain to get the medication to those in need in abortion-ban states in the United States.

The nonprofit Las Libres in Guanajuato, Mexico, helps women access medication for abortions for free. By working with volunteers like the Old Hippies of San Miguel de Allende, the organization delivers the medication to distributors in abortion-ban states in the United States.

Williamson Health and Wellness Center is a federally qualified health center in rural West Virginia, that provides medical, dental, and mental health care as well as chronic-disease management and wellness coaching on a sliding scale. The health center addresses social determinants of health with programs like fresh produce delivery, a community garden, and workforce development. The community health worker program has seen success by hiring local people to visit patients at home and work with them to monitor their blood sugar, take their medications properly, and learn healthy lifestyle choices.

Babyl Health provides over 3,000 daily e-health consultations to bridge the gap between Rwandan providers and patients. The two million registered users can dial *811# to book an appointment and are triaged, with those needing more extensive care referred to one of the 483 partner clinics around the country. The country’s universal health coverage pays for 90% of the appointment and the patient pays 200 RWF. The platform works on an app available on most citizens’ phones and doesn’t require an internet connection. When needed, patients receive prescriptions via SMS that they can bring to a local pharmacy.

In Colombia – where having an abortion can be stigmatizing, in some cases illegal, and now even more difficult due to the coronavirus pandemic – a clinic has set up a national hotline to help women who are up to 10 weeks pregnant aaccess to safe abortions at home. So far, the clinic has connected with 700 women.

Free, remote medical consultations are increasing healthcare access for the inhabitants of Bangladesh’s char islands. Using boats, laptops, and video conference software, local NGOs are bringing health services to char residents. One group, thesteps.org, provides residents with a telemedicine service called Teledaktra (TD), another nonprofit, Friendship, operates satellite clinics from a boat.

What started out as a private phone line in a person's house to talk to people suffering from HIV/AIDS has now turned into a mobile e-health clinic that provides both education and medical support. The Medical Advocacy and Outreach Selma clinic aims to eliminate barriers, such as geographical location and stigma, for those with HIV/AIDS while also acting as a touchpoint for those with other primary and mental health care needs.

Almost a quarter of rural Americans surveyed by NPR had used a telehealth service in the past few years. While new technologies are allowing remote patients to gain new access to healthcare, lack of broadband service and outdated insurance policies are making it hard for more widespread adoption.