3 takeaways from Live Action's abortion pill exposé, investigation of Planned Parenthood

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, January 29, 2026

1. Video shows employees telling women they don't need an ultrasound before taking abortion pill

Live Action presented a nearly eight-minute investigation video at last Thursday's press conference, purporting to showcase how Planned Parenthood responds to questions from women seeking the abortion pill. As part of the investigation, the pro-life group called 27 Planned Parenthood facilities throughout the U.S.

Throughout the video, the undercover operative is heard asking Planned Parenthood staffers various questions about the abortion pill, such as whether it’s necessary to have an ultrasound beforehand to confirm the gestational age of the baby. 

The Food and Drug Administration does not approve the abortion pill regimen for women who are more than 10 weeks pregnant or women whose pregnancy is ectopic, information that a provider usually obtains through an ultrasound.

Multiple Planned Parenthood employees, including in New York, Santa Fe, New Mexico and Colorado Springs, Colorado, are heard in the video telling the operative that she doesn’t have to undergo an ultrasound examination before taking the abortion pill if she doesn’t want one. 

Live Action’s investigator asked if she could obtain the abortion pill without her parents’ knowledge. A staffer at a Planned Parenthood in Portland, Oregon, assured the investigator that they could make it “confidential” for her. 

In addition to the Planned Parenthood in Portland, the pro-life investigator asked several Planned Parenthood facilities if they could mail the abortion pill to a different address. An employee at a Planned Parenthood in St. Cloud, Minnesota, suggested that the investigator use a friend’s address if she didn’t want to use her own. 

Live Action expressed concern, arguing that such accommodation could make it easier for abusers to obtain abortion drugs. Several cases made headlines last year involved a woman’s significant other secretly ordering abortion drugs that they tried to force them to take. 

"Furthermore, concerns over illicit and unregulated abortion pill traffickers flowing into the U.S.
continue to escalate, including the dispatching of abortion pills to minors without parental consent and into the hands of abusers who slip the mailed drugs into beverages of a pregnant victim," the report notes.