As state abortion restrictions started to tighten in the aftermath of the June 2022 decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, two longtime veterans of the fight for abortion access wanted to help.
Former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards and Tom Subak, the nonprofit’s former chief strategy officer, wanted to help. They started by conducting a deep dive into the online behavior of abortion seekers both before and after the Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. It turned out that a glut of coverage made actually finding abortion resources challenging.
“What we didn’t expect was that abortion was in the news so much that the search landscape was actually very complicated,” Subak says. “People were getting results that had nothing to do with how to access an abortion.”
Yet, if anything, the need for abortions has risen Though a report from the Society for Family planning found only a modest increase in the number of monthly abortions—from 82,115 in July 2022 to 82,298 in June 2023—that figure underestimates the number of actual abortions needed, since abortions declined in states where it’s illegal.
To help address the gap between the need and availability of abortion resources, in September 2023 Richards and Subak rolled out Charley—a chatbot that can be integrated into any website to offer information on abortion access. Charley draws information from INeedAnA.com, which provides clinic information, and the Abortion Policy API for state laws—both of which are regularly updated with the latest information on abortions.
“Finding information about abortions is currently a scavenger hunt,” says Kiana Tipton the executive director of Charley. “One of the best ways to get information as quickly as possible is to have a chat bot that does the search for you.”
Charley’s script, which has been reviewed by healthcare providers and lawyers, directs users through a decision tree where they can find everything from resources on abortion procedures and abortion pills, to helplines where they can talk to someone on the phone about their options. Beyond abortion access info, through its partners and co-creators—including Plan C and the M+A Hotline—Charley also provides information about accessing funding.
