THERE IS A SIERRA CHOICE
“The way things are right now is not the way things will always be,” Jen, the founder of Eastern Sierra Choice, told the Sheet.
She was referring to the lack of reproductive healthcare services offered in the Eastern Sierra. There are no procedural abortion providers in the area, a problem she said is compounded by the presence of Options, a faith-based crisis pregnancy center located in Bishop.
“There is such a lack of access and information in the Sierra,” Jen said. She chose not to disclose her last name.
“When you google questions about abortion, you get the Sierra Options website. We really did start in response to Options.”
Frustrated with the barriers to reproductive health care on the Eastside, Jen and a group of her friends founded the Eastern Sierra Choice website in 2024. The website provides a distilled list of resources, including where to order an abortion pill, how to procure abortion funds, and post abortion support hotlines.
“In a post Roe vs. Wade landscape, in places where abortion is still legal, it still is difficult to access,” she said. “California is a huge state. Abortion services are pretty accessible in major cities, but [on the Eastside], we have a rural healthcare problem.”
Determined to make abortion services more accessible, the Eastern Sierra Choice website includes links to online abortion pill providers, such as Hey Jane, Carafem, and Abortion on Demand. Alongside these links are details regarding what type of insurance these sites accept and the access to virtual providers the patient will have. The majority of these sites ship the medication between one and five days. This timing is crucial, because the abortion pill can only be taken when the patient is less than 11 weeks pregnant, and most women only realize they are pregnant at six weeks.
Eastern Sierra Choice also provides resources to abortion funds, which are particularly helpful for low-income patients on the Eastside looking for a procedural abortion. Since there are no procedural abortion providers on the Eastside, these individuals must drive hours to Bakersfield, Reno, or Los Angeles.
The costs of this journey can be intimidating. Sites like Access Reproductive Justice and Brigid Alliance seek to alleviate financial burdens through providing support for abortion procedures, transportation, childcare, lodging, and emotional support. Eastern Sierra Choice also points Indigenous users to the Rain Fund, which provides funding to Native people only.
The motivation to start the website was ignited when Jen saw “Wicked” with a group of friends in the Bishop theater. During the previews, an advertisement for Options flashed across the screen.
“It was a real red flag,” Jen said. “I looked around the movie theater and saw teen girls and young women watching this ad with misinformation and no context.”
She worried particularly about the information the crisis pregnancy center provides about abortion risks and the abortion pill reversal.
“You cannot access an abortion in this town,” Jen said. “[Options] will only make it harder.”
The Options website states abortions can cause fever, infection, damage to the cervix, heavy, prolonged bleeding, and incomplete abortions, which may require a repeat procedure.
However, if performed via pill or a licensed medical professional, abortions are widely considered low risk. According to the Utah Department of Health and Human services, the risk of incomplete abortions and cervical injury is less than 1%.
Options also advertises abortion pill reversal services, a procedure that works to undo the abortion pill.
Typically, an abortion pill is taken in two parts, mifepristone and misoprostol, and works to block progesterone––a hormone that supports menstruation and maintaining a pregnancy–– subsequently causing uterine contractions to expel the fetus. According to Options’ website, the abortion pill reversal works to give the body high levels of progesterone to counteract the mifepristone before the misoprostol is taken.
This is false, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), which states “there is no evidence that treatment with progesterone after taking mifepristone increases the likelihood of the pregnancy continuing.” The reversal process can cause significant hemorrhaging; one study showed as many as 25% of women who undergo this process require a blood transfusion.
“There is not one service that Sierra Options is providing that is a real service, that you can not get somewhere else in this area,” Jen said. “The only exemption to that is the fake service of abortion reversal.”
For example, Options provides free ultrasounds, but so do Northern Inyo and Mammoth Hospitals. In California, low-income pregnant women without health insurance qualify for immediate, temporary Medi-Cal coverage, regardless of immigration status.
“By making abortion accessible, we are supporting stronger, healthier families,” Jen said. “We are creating a situation where people have children when they are ready to have children, and they have the amount of children that work for their life. It’s not anti-family. It’s very pro-family.”
Eastern Sierra Choice is maintained by Jen and a nebulous group of her friends. You can reach them at support@easternsierrachoice.com or online at easternsierrachoice.com.
