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Planned Parenthood launches abortion health care finder web app

The digital tool will help women navigate state restrictions, Planned Parenthood said.

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planned-parenthood

The Abortion Care Finder tool will help women find information online.

SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

Reproductive health care nonprofit Planned Parenthood has announced the Abortion Care Finder online tool. It's designed to help women figure out where they can access information about their options, plus any applicable state requirements and their nearest Planned Parenthood center for safe and legal abortions.

Planned Parenthood said it hopes to integrate independent health providers more seamlessly into the tool in the future. For now, if the nearest Planned Parenthood health center is more than 60 miles away, or the tool can't locate one based on how far along the pregnancy is, the tool will provide the user additional providers by connecting them to the National Abortion Federation, which has a database of independent providers.

The new digital tool is available on both mobile and desktop, and will personalize info based on users' age, ZIP code and how far along in pregnancy they are. It includes data on gestational limits, parental notification and consent laws, mandatory waiting periods and other relevant rules like those requiring women to make two trips to a health care center.

Planned Parenthood said the tool is a response to "mounting state restrictions on abortion" across not only access to abortion services but also to accurate information. "The Abortion Care Finder uses technology to help put agency back in the hands of our patients," Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood CEO, said Tuesday.

The organization's Direct app, which offers birth control and treatments for urinary tract infections, is also expanding nationwide, the nonprofit announced in September.

Planned Parenthood launched the Direct app in 2015 and slowly added states. (Last October, the app added Texas.) Through it, users could chat with a Planned Parenthood provider online or through video chat to receive an STD testing kit or birth control in the mail.

Originally published Nov. 12.
Update, Nov. 13: Adds more information.