Research has shown that people are able to safely and effectively self-manage their early abortions using abortion pills—mifepristone plus misoprostol or misoprostol alone. People report being able to find abortion pills outside of the formal medical system. However, they also report that it is difficult to know which of the many websites are reliable and wonder if the pills they receive are real.

In 2017, we did a study to test the reliability of websites that claimed to sell abortion pills and found that all of the pills we received were real. We created this “Report Card” to share what we have learned about specific websites, including information about their pricing, shipping times, and product quality, compiling results of this "mystery shopper" study by Plan C and Gynuity Health Projects, completed in early 2017, as well as more recent purchases.

In the 2017 study, we ordered "abortion kits" from online pharmacies and tested all pills we received in a lab. We have not tested the quality of the more recent purchases, instead basing our quality scores on prior knowledge of the manufacturers’ product quality. All of the pills we received were real—they contained the labeled active ingredients. However, some had lower amounts of active ingredient than they were supposed to (which could make them less effective). Please note that many of our findings reflect purchases made in early 2017. Because online pharmacy services are unregulated, there is no way to assess the authenticity or quality of the products they provide today (but we have no reason to suspect that the quality of pills they ship now would be different).

Payment options varied: some sites accepted credit cards; some sites used bank transfer platforms, like Transferwise; others required wiring money via Western Union; others accepted Bitcoin The cost of the pills, including shipping, averaged about $235 for an "abortion kit" containing both mifepristone and misoprostol. Buying misoprostol (Cytotec) alone may be less expensive, but is also less effective than using both mifepristone and misoprostol: 85% vs 97%). For images of kits that contained real active ingredients and information about their quality, visit plancpills.org/pill-photos.

Please visit plancpills.org/faq for more information about the legal status of self-use of abortion pills in the United States.

Murtagh C, Wells E, Raymond EG, Coeytaux F, Winikoff B. Exploring the Feasibility of Obtaining Mifepristone and Misoprostol from the Internet. Contraception. Published online October 11, 2017: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010782417304754

Updated 04/13/20