Pro-Life Groups Outraged over CVS, Walgreen’s Move to Sell Abortion Pill

CVS and Walgreens, two of the country’s largest pharmacy chains, will start selling the abortion pill mifepristone in certain stores this month.

The companies received certification from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to dispense the pill used in the two-drug chemical abortion after regulatory changes implemented last year. 

Walgreens announced it will dispense the drug within a week in select locations in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California, and Illinois.

Meanwhile, CVS plans to fill prescriptions for chemical abortions in the next few weeks in states where it is legal, such as Massachusetts and Rhode Island.  

According to the New York Times, both chains have plans to expand access to all other states where abortion is legal and where pharmacies can dispense the pill.

While abortion advocates are celebrating the move, pro-life advocates are slamming the chains for selling abortion drugs just weeks before the Supreme Court is set to weigh in on a case that could, ultimately, limit access to mifepristone.

As CBN News reported, this is the first abortion case the court will hear since the monumental Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

The case centers around how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows the pill to be prescribed. 

It was approved for use in a controversial manner 23 years ago. That approval required an in-person prescription, but the abortion-inducing drug was then made available through telemedicine and by mail since 2016. Critics say that puts women’s lives at risk because a doctor can’t fully assess them.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals previously found that the FDA’s actions likely violated the law.

“In loosening mifepristone’s safety restrictions, FDA failed to address several important concerns about whether the drug would be safe for the women who use it,” Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote. She was joined by Judge Cory Wilson. 

In its ruling, the court restored other safety measures to protect women, saying mifepristone should only be allowed through the seventh week of pregnancy rather than the 10th, and it must be administered in the presence of a physician.  

The high court will hear oral arguments in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and Danco v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine on March 26 and make a ruling in June. 

“As two of the world’s largest, most trusted ‘health’ brands, the decision by CVS and Walgreens to sell dangerous abortion drugs is shameful, and the harm to unborn babies and their mothers incalculable. This reckless policy was made possible by the Biden administration, which is pushing to turn every pharmacy and post office in America into an abortion center for the sake of abortion industry greed,” said SBA Pro-Life America’s State Policy Director Katie Daniel. 

***Please sign up for CBN Newsletters and download the CBN News app to ensure you keep receiving the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***

“Even when used under the strongest safeguards, abortion drugs send roughly one in 25 women to the emergency room, according to the FDA’s own label,” she added. “…the FDA has illegally rolled back basic safety standards, like in-person doctor visits, even allowing these deadly drugs to be sent through the mail.” 

Myrna Maloney Flynn is the president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life and she condemned both pharmacies for dispensing the pill in her state. 

“Our women will now pick up abortion pills at the local CVS or Walgreens and consume the drugs in their homes, without any medical care available,” Flynn shared. “Just as tragically, healthcare providers will not be able to support these women when they deliver their deceased babies into a toilet.”

Non-profit legal group, Alliance Defending Freedom, called the decision “appalling” on X. 

CVS and Walgreens are recklessly pushing high-risk drugs onto women, who are now left to perform their own chemical abortions alone at home without ever having visited a medical professional.

This is appalling. #WomenDeserveBetter pic.twitter.com/z4GczmIuGd

— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) March 1, 2024

“CVS and Walgreens are planning to begin selling chemical abortion drugs in their pharmacies this month. CVS claims to ‘put people first,’ but with this move, they’re clearly putting PROFITS first,” wrote Students For Life for America on the social media site.

CVS and Walgreens are planning to begin selling chemical abortion drugs in their pharmacies this month. CVS claims to “put people first,” but with this move, they’re clearly putting PROFITS first.

Tell pharmacies to prioritize PEOPLE > PROFITS at https://t.co/0IQCcap5YL! pic.twitter.com/KqLRINjTdl

— Students for Life of America | Pro-Life Gen (@StudentsforLife) March 3, 2024

Students for Life of America also filed an amicus brief in the mifepristone case before the Supreme Court. Kristan Hawkins, the president of the group, is accusing CVS & Walgreens of thinking “they officially have a LICENSE TO KILL preborn babies…”  

Hawkins noted in December, “The Biden Administration has been the best friend Planned Parenthood ever had, in setting up an online pill-pushing market that allows them to skip the costs of life-saving tests for women and to ignore the risks of pollution by permitting chemically tainted blood, tissue, and human remains to be dumped in our waterways.” 

Meanwhile, March for Life is calling for a boycott of the major chains. 

Time to boycott CVS and Walgreens.

Pharmacies should be places that provide medication to help life, not end it.

Also, they shouldn’t be in the business of jeopardizing the health of thousands of women through the unregulated distribution of toxic drugs.

Just a thought. pic.twitter.com/cKqR3JbVsY

— March for Life (@March_for_Life) March 1, 2024

“Time to boycott CVS and Walgreens,” they wrote on X. “Pharmacies should be places that provide medication to help life, not end it.”