This story was originally published January 6, 2023. It has been updated with new information.
What you need to know
- In early 2023, the FDA made changes to its requirements for the abortion pill mifepristone, allowing pharmacies, including CVS and Walgreens, to become certified to provide the drug.
- On March 1, CVS and Walgreens, the largest pharmacy chains in the U.S., said they will start providing mifepristone this month in some states where it’s legal to dispense abortion pills.
- As far as ban states, Walgreens said it won’t dispense pills in states where abortion laws aren’t clear, and CVS added that it will continue to monitor and evaluate changes in those states.
Mifepristone, a pill that can be used to end a pregnancy of up to 12 weeks of gestation, will now be available at CVS and Walgreens in some states. On March 1, the two pharmacy chains told the Times that they will begin offering the pills with a prescription in a few states and then expand to about half of the states, where it’s legal to dispense abortion pills (though they will not be mailing the pills).
Both pharmacies told the New York Times that they would be monitoring the possibility of dispensing the pills in some other states like Kansas, Montana, and Wyoming where abortion bans or restrictions have been blocked by legal challenges. About ban states, Walgreens said it won’t dispense pills in states where abortion laws aren’t clear, and CVS said that it will continue to monitor and evaluate changes in those states.
Previously, the FDA only allowed “certified prescribers” to provide the pill to a patient in a hospital, clinic, or medical office.
Read on to learn more about what the change means.
What does this mean for abortion access?
Medication abortion accounts for more than half of abortions in the U.S., so this change means that many more pregnant people across the nation will have access to the drug—which is especially vital in the post-Roe era. Mifepristone, also known by the brand name Mifeprex, has been approved by the FDA since 2000. The drug can end a pregnancy when used alongside misoprostol (another medicine that is not as tightly regulated and can be easily obtained at pharmacies). Before this change, pregnant people could access mifepristone in person at a hospital, clinic, or medical office, with an option to also get it via mail since 2021.
Where will CVS and Walgreens first start dispensing mifepristone?
Walgreens will start providing the pill over the next week in some pharmacies in California, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Massachusetts. And CVS will start providing them in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Both with later expand to other states.
Will pregnant people in ban states also have access to the medication?
Though this is a major step for abortion access across the country, 15 states currently require pregnant people to receive abortion pills in person and prohibit the use of telemedicine to prescribe medication abortion. This requirement means that pharmacies in those states won’t be allowed to provide abortion pills to patients there for now. But there are many online services now available that allow pregnant people in those states to still have access to these pills via mail.
How did this change happen?
In June 2022, GenBioPro and Danco Laboratories, both companies that make mifepristone, asked the FDA to change the drug’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS)—a program that the FDA sometimes uses to make sure a drug’s benefits outweigh its risks—to allow pharmacies to dispense the drugs. But abortion advocates and physicians have been fighting for this change, and for the FDA to remove the REMS program for mifepristone altogether, for several years. In a statement in response to the news in 2023, Julia Kaye, a staff attorney at the ACLU, said: “We are happy the FDA has increased pharmacy access to this safe and effective medication, relieving one of the agency’s needless burdens on mifepristone patients. But leading medical groups have long called for outright elimination of the FDA’s special restrictions on mifepristone, which obstruct abortion and miscarriage patients from accessing the time-sensitive health care they need without a corresponding safety benefit.”