CVS and Walgreens to Start Selling Abortion Pills This Month

Mifepristone will only be available in a few states where abortion is legal and will not be available online

CVS and Walgreens will begin selling the abortion pill mifepristone in the coming weeks.

The decision was announced Friday by spokespeople for both drugstore chains following the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to allow the drug to be offered in retail pharmacies, which was previously finalized in January 2023.

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However, at this time, the pill will only be available in a handful of states where abortion is legal. CVS and Walgreens will not make mifepristone available by mail order, although that may change later.

CVS, Walgreens. Getty Images; David J Phillip/AP/Shutterstock

Now that Walgreens has completed the FDA certification process to dispense mifepristone, the company plans to begin distributing it within a week at select locations in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California and Illinois, said Fraser Engerman, a company spokesman. The New York Times.

“We are beginning a phased rollout in select locations to ensure quality, safety and privacy for our patients, providers and team members,” Walgreens said in a statement. The company’s goal is to “gradually expand availability to locations in all legally permitted states in a phased approach.”

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Engerman said The New York Times that Walgreens “will not dispense in states where the laws are unclear” to protect its pharmacists and staff members.

Amy Thibault, a spokeswoman for CVS, also said The New York Times that CVS will begin dispensing at all of its Massachusetts and Rhode Island pharmacies “in the coming weeks.”

For now, CVS is “working with manufacturers and suppliers to secure the drugs and is not yet dispensing them” at any of its pharmacies, NBC News reported.

mifepristone (L) and misoprostol tablets. ELISA WELLS/PLAN C/AFP via Getty

Both companies are monitoring laws in Kansas, Montana, Wyoming and other states for possible distribution later, he reports The New York Times.

In a statement shared by the White House on Friday, President Joe Biden praised the update, calling it an “important milestone.”

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“Many women will soon be able to pick up their prescription at a local licensed pharmacy — just as they would for any other drug,” Biden, 81, said, urging “all pharmacies” to seek certification if they are interested in dispensing abortion pills. .

He continued, “The stakes couldn’t be higher for women across America. In the face of relentless attacks on reproductive freedom by Republican elected officials, Vice President Harris and I will continue to fight to ensure women get the health care they need, defend the Food and Drug Administration’s independent approval and evidence-based regulation of mifepristone, and restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law.”

In January 2023, a Walgreens spokesperson told CBS News, “We are working on registration, necessary training for our pharmacists, as well as evaluating our pharmacy network in terms of where we typically dispense products that have additional FDA requirements and we will dispense those in accordance with federal and state laws.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education