Warning: Content regarding sexual assault and abuse in this story may be triggering or disturbing for some readers.
I met the Plan C team at LACMA this past Sunday and watched their billboard for abortion pills roll down Wilshire Boulevard, right past the famous lampposts of Urban Light. The truck was wrapped in LED screens glowing royal blue, with the message in big, rounded white letters: “Abortion pills by mail are a reality in all 50 states.”
Underneath, in smaller text, it read, “Yes, even that one.” The back of the truck was one giant QR code. It wasn't a protest sign but looked more like an ad for something you would order on your phone. The truck parked right next to a street vendor selling fruit under a rainbow umbrella.
It was one stop on the Plan C Community Road Trip, a mobile billboard that crossed L.A. that day, from Venice to Atwater Village. From LACMA, I followed the truck to Beauty Gossip, a Latina-owned nail salon in East Hollywood, where it parked for the evening.
I showed up because this one is personal.
Having to make a difficult decision about my body. Escaping an abusive relationship. Being gang-raped, and afterward, having to take emergency contraception. As a young woman who kept being taken advantage of, like many, I knew I wasn't ready for pregnancy at that time in my life and had to heal emotionally.
People love to argue about the decision. Yet, so many never consider the mental health side of it and what you carry long after you decide. And when you're young and scared, the last thing you need is bad information about contraceptives.
There's a lot of confusion out there, starting with the names.
"Plan A is your condoms or birth control," Lauren Hattaway, Plan C's community engagement and outreach manager, tells L.A. TACO. "Plan B is an emergency contraceptive that you take up to 72 hours after you've had unprotected sex or your contraception fails. And Plan C is a website that helps you access abortion medication."
Even doctors mix the names up. Tia Mazza, a filmmaker who wrote and directed a public service announcement for Plan C, says a younger dermatologist once asked whether the Plan C pill was Plan B. "A doctor didn't know the difference," Mazza says.
Plan C doesn't sell pills or give medical advice. Its website has a state-by-state guide to how people are getting abortion pills by mail, from telehealth clinics to community networks, plus hotlines for medical, legal, and emotional support.
"What we hear the most specifically about abortion pills by mail is that they're not available," Hattaway says. "That is unequivocally not correct."
"What we hear the most specifically about abortion pills by mail is that they're not available," Hattaway says. "That is unequivocally not correct."
For anyone scared to even approach Plan C’s website, Hattaway explains that the page is encrypted, doesn't track visitors' IP addresses, and has an emergency exit button in the corner. Plus, the listed providers ship pills in nondescript packaging.
"The threat is real, and everyone has to assess their own level of threat," she says. Plan C's site is upfront that legal risk depends on where you live, and it points people to the free, confidential Repro Legal Helpline.
Then there's the story we've all been told about who gets abortions.
"We've normally been told, oh, people who get abortions are young, and they've made a mistake, and they don't know what they're doing," Hattaway says. "No."
The numbers say otherwise. Most women getting abortions have already given birth, according to the latest report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That report covers 2022, and it may be the last one for a while. The CDC hasn't published new abortion data since the second Trump administration began, and the staff of its reproductive health division was let go, according to KFF.
THE NUMBERS
- Nearly 60 percent of abortions in 2022 were among women who had already given birth. (CDC)
- Nearly two-thirds of U.S. abortions are now done with pills. (KFF)
- About 1.13 million abortions happened in the U.S. in 2025, and 28 percent of them accessed abortion medication through telehealth. (KFF)
- 13 states ban abortion at every stage of pregnancy. (AP)
- 22 states, plus Washington, D.C., have shield laws for abortion care. (KFF)
- At least 412 people were charged with pregnancy-related crimes in the first two years after Roe v. Wade fell. (Pregnancy Justice)
- 95 percent of women in UCSF's Turnaway Study said their abortion was the right decision for them, five years later. (ANSIRH)
Our rights are being attacked from every direction right now.
Less than two weeks before Plan C's road trip, the attorneys general of Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas asked the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the shield laws in California, New York, and Massachusetts that protect doctors who prescribe abortion pills across state lines, the Associated Press reported. Louisiana and Texas have already pursued criminal charges and civil claims against doctors in New York and California.
Louisiana and Texas have already pursued criminal charges and civil claims against doctors in New York and California.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is also re-reviewing mifepristone, the first pill in a medication abortion, in a review ordered by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The agency told a federal court it expects to report its findings by March 2027, according to the AP.
People are already being prosecuted for seeking abortions. Of the hundreds of pregnancy-related cases Pregnancy Justice documented in the first two years after Roe v. Wade fell, nine involved abortion-related allegations, like searching for information online or ordering abortion pills.
We are being prosecuted for making the best decisions for our bodies, for ourselves.
So why do the women behind Plan C keep showing up?
"We're the only ones who are going to save each other," Hattaway says.
For her, the road trip is about pulling abortion out of the shadows. "People are having abortions regularly, and they're not ashamed to say it," she says.
Her advice right now is blunt. "The name of the game is getting in front of what this administration is doing," Hattaway says. "And the way you can do that is ordering the pills before you need them."
"The name of the game is getting in front of what this administration is doing," Hattaway says. "And the way you can do that is ordering the pills before you need them."
Imani started at Plan C as an intern seven years ago. She grew up in Atlanta with what she called "a really shitty sex ed program" and had to find reproductive health information on her own. When asked what she wishes someone had told her, she said she would have loved to know it existed at all.
Mazza slid into Plan C's Instagram DMs this spring because she was frustrated about abortion access and needed to do something. "Can I answer phones? Can I hand out stickers? Can I do anything?" she remembered asking. That turned into the PSA.
"In today's political climate, we need this more than ever," Mazza says. "I feel empowered. I think we all do when we can do something, even if it's just a tiny thing."
"In today's political climate, we need this more than ever," Mazza says. "I feel empowered. I think we all do when we can do something, even if it's just a tiny thing."
She calls it "a little glorious rebellion."
At Beauty Gossip, that rebellion takes place at a nail salon.
Organizers handed out clear zip pouches printed with "Abortion Pills by Mail," each holding buttons and information from Plan C. They had planned free paletas too, but it was colder than expected, so those got skipped.
Michelle helps her mom, a single mother, run the salon, handling the marketing and doing nails. The name was inspired by her favorite show, "Gossip Girl." She said they opened before the neighborhood started gentrifying. Now, as a Latina-owned salon on a block that's changing fast, they feel out of place, and business isn't what it used to be.
Johanna Toruño, the artist behind the Unapologetic Street Series, gets her nails done there and brought Plan C in. By day, it's a nail salon. At night, they clear it out and turn it into a gallery with art and resources for the neighborhood.
"Black folks have been utilizing beauty spaces to organize for generations," Toruño tells L.A. TACO. Plan C helping them make room for that, she says, "has really been fundamental, especially as small businesses are hurt by ICE every day."
"Black folks have been utilizing beauty spaces to organize for generations," Toruño tells L.A. TACO. Plan C helping them make room for that, she says, "has really been fundamental, especially as small businesses are hurt by ICE every day."
Here's what I wish more people talked about: what happens after.
"A lot of people feel like since abortion is so stigmatized, they feel like they can't talk to anybody about it," Imani says. "They feel like it has to be isolating." She wants people to know they don't have to go through it alone.
The research shows what's at stake when that choice gets taken away. UCSF's Turnaway Study, the largest U.S. study on unwanted pregnancy, found that women turned away from an abortion were more likely to suffer anxiety and loss of self-esteem in the short term, and more likely to stay tethered to abusive partners, according to ANSIRH.
There are only so many ways to access reproductive health care, especially if you’re living in one of the 13 states that have completely banned abortion. Pills by mail will help so many people during this frightening time when the fate of our healthcare system remains in flux. Our rights are being attacked, but Plan C is still here to help people navigate access.
These days, having access to Plan C seems more like a luxury and less like the basic right it should be; but as long as Plan C exists, we still have a choice.
NEED SUPPORT?
Here are four free and confidential resources:
- Reprocare Healthline for emotional and logistical support ~ (833) 226-7821.
- M+A Hotline for medical questions ~ (833) 246-2632.
- Repro Legal Helpline for legal questions ~ (844) 868-2812
- RAINN's National Sexual Assault Hotline ~ 800-656-HOPE (4673) or online.rainn.org
