Two major retail pharmacy chains have announced that they will dispense medication abortion for their customers who have been prescribed pills used to terminate pregnancy.
Walgreens and CVS said they will begin filling prescriptions for mifepristone in states where it is not legally prohibited, diving into the culturally divisive battle over reproductive rights shortly before the Supreme Court weighs a case that may alter access to the abortion pill.
The move by two of the nation’s largest pharmacy networks promises to expand the availability of the drug, which is the subject of litigation challenging the FDA’s approval of it.
The availability of medications to terminate pregnancy has taken on new significance since more than a dozen states have banned abortion following the high court’s 2022 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
Walgreens completed the Food and Drug Administration’s certification process to sell mifepristone and plans to do so at pharmacies in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, California, and Illinois beginning this week.
“We are beginning a phased rollout in select locations to ensure quality, safety and privacy for our patients, providers and team members,” a Walgreens spokesperson said.
CVS said that it will begin filling prescriptions for the drug in Massachusetts and Rhode Island “in the weeks ahead and will expand to additional states, where allowed by law.”
CVS is “working with manufacturers and suppliers to secure the medication (but) not yet dispensing it in any of our pharmacies.”
The Supreme Court in December agreed to review a ruling by a federal appeals court that would significantly restrict (but not eliminate altogether) access to a drug used in medication abortions, which account for over half of all abortions performed in the United States. This month, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in that case.
The case means that the justices will weigh in on the issue of abortion for the first time since overruling the constitutional right to an abortion last year in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Their decisions in the new cases, Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and Danco Laboratories v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, are likely to come sometime next summer, in the middle of the 2024 presidential campaign.
The top court declined to take up an appeal by a group of abortion opponents who had asked them to also weigh in on the validity of the FDA’s initial approval of the drug, known as mifepristone, in 2000.
A federal judge in Amarillo, Texas, suspended the FDA’s initial approval of the drug but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that the challenge to invalidate the FDA’s decision came to
“Medication abortion is safe and effective, and ensuring access to it is critical,” said Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. “With Republicans and extremist judges continuing their coordinated assault on reproductive freedom, the decision by CVS and Walgreens to dispense mifepristone is a massive step toward ensuring folks can access the essential healthcare they need and deserve.”
Others argue that more should be done because laws restricting access to safe abortion violate the human rights of women, who are already marginalized and disproportionately affected by oppressive laws and economic circumstances.
“We who have been working to expand access to mifepristone at pharmacies are thrilled,” said New Jersey women’s rights advocate Lisa McCormick. “However, FDA should make mifepristone and misoprostol—two medications that have been used safely together for more than 20 years to safely terminate an early pregnancy—available over the counter.”
McCormick campaigned for the US Senate in 2018 on a platform that called for legislation establishing the right to privacy and freedom to choose an abortion, which was protected for more than 50 years but vulnerable as they were overturned by judicial fiat.