When Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, the top supplier of abortion pills to the United States was on alert for orders from panicked women. Dr. Rebecca Gomperts is the founder of the organization Aid Access and joins us now from Paris. 

Gomperts shared that her organization was flooded with requests in the hours after Trump was reelected. 

“The moment that the results became known, we saw an incredible intake of help requests from people from women from all over the U.S. So it was clear that there was an enormous concern about the future of abortion access, and we had 10,000 requests within 24 hours. So now [weeks after the election,] it’s still four times as much as we used to have before Trump was elected. So I think people are still really trying to get access to abortion bills in order to have this lifesaving treatment in their hands in case Trump decides to further restrict abortion access or the medication,” she said. 

Gomperts and her team operate out of Paris, France. She explained how she gets pills to customers in the United States. 

“We have an online platform at AidAccess.org. People can do the online consultation there. There’s a whole set of questions that you would normally ask a doctor as well... I work with U.S. providers in different states, mostly to shield law states and they fill all the help requests. Then women are asked to send a copy of the payment if they can afford to pay. If they cannot afford to pay, we give a sliding scale or even [give medication for] free because, again, this is a lifesaving treatment and we feel that everybody has to be able to access it, even if they have no financial means. Then we work with several pharmacies in the United States who are sending the medication,” Gomperts said.

Gomperts addressed fears that women may have if they live in a state that restricts or outlaws abortions.

“An abortion is a lifesaving treatment. And within all the states, everywhere in the U.S., there is always this exception where when the life of the woman is at risk, she has the right to access an abortion. If you look at the data on abortion, in the first trimester it’s 60 times safer than continuing the pregnancy and giving birth. So it’s really preventive lifesaving health care... In these states, they all say that women cannot be criminalized based on the abortion bans. So there are no states in the United States where women can be criminalized or prosecuted for having an abortion. And I think it’s very important for them to know that,” she explained. 

Gomperts expressed her confidence that women will continue to help each other access that care even if the Trump administration further targets abortion medications like mifepristone. 

“The pills are not going to go away. They are there. You can bring them in through suitcases, the mail. There’s no way you’re going to stop women from needing abortions and getting access to the abortion pills. But you also have to realize there’s other conditions for which the medication mifepristone is also used... There’s now studies looking at how it’s can preventing breast cancer, for example. We are now doing a study on using it as a weekly contraceptive. So there’s many, many important uses for mifepristone besides [abortions]. For the treatment of miscarriages, for example,” Gomperts said. 

Watch the full interview above.

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