A container containing boxes of mifepristone, the first medication in a medication abortion, is prepared for patients at the Alamo Women's Clinic in Carbondale, Illinois, on April 20, 2023.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
CVS and Walgreens will begin selling the abortion pill mifepristone this month in certain pharmacies in states where it is legal to do so, spokespersons for the companies told CNBC on Friday.
CVS and Walgreens received certification from the Food and Drug Administration to dispense the commonly used pill in their retail pharmacies, spokespeople for each company said in separate statements.
CVS will begin filling prescriptions for the drug in Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the coming weeks, a company spokesperson said. They added that CVS will expand to additional states, “when permitted by law, on an ongoing basis.”
Walgreens expects to begin dispensing prescriptions for the pill within a week at select pharmacies in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California and Illinois, a company spokesperson said.
It should be noted that the chains will not provide medications by mail. The New York Times reported the news early Friday.
Mifepristone is the first pill used in the two-drug abortion regimen.
The FDA is taking on anti-abortion doctors in an unprecedented legal challenge to its approval of mifepristone more than two decades ago. An anti-abortion group sued the agency in 2022 in an attempt to outlaw that approval and completely remove the pill from the U.S. market.
On March 26, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in that closely watched case.
The Food and Drug Administration said in January it will allow retail pharmacies to offer mifepristone in the United States for the first time.
Under a regulatory change at the agency, pharmacies can apply for certification to distribute the pill with one of two companies that make it. That certification would allow pharmacies to dispense the medication directly to patients upon receiving a prescription from a certified prescriber.
Before the FDA's regulatory change, only a few mail-order pharmacies or specially certified doctors or clinics could distribute mifepristone.
The regulatory change will potentially expand abortion access as the Biden administration struggles to find the best way to protect abortion rights. Abortion rights in the United States were severely curtailed by the Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade.
The Biden administration has sought to make access to abortion and contraception a major platform of the 2024 presidential campaign.
Medication abortion is the most common method of ending a pregnancy in the U.S., according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That method is approved by the FDA for use up to 10 weeks of pregnancy.
