Packing containers of the drug mifepristone sit on a shelf on the West Alabama Girls’s Heart in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on March 16, 2022.
Allen G. Breed/AP
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Allen G. Breed/AP
Packing containers of the drug mifepristone sit on a shelf on the West Alabama Girls’s Heart in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on March 16, 2022.
Allen G. Breed/AP
CVS and Walgreens, two of the nation’s largest retail pharmacies, acquired federal certification to start allotting mifepristone, one in every of two medicine utilized in remedy abortions, in states the place it’s authorized to take action, the businesses individually confirmed to NPR.
CVS will begin filling prescriptions for mifepristone in Massachusetts and Rhode Island within the weeks forward, with eventual plans to increase to different states the place the drug is authorized on a rolling foundation, in response to a CVS spokeswoman.
Walgreens will start allotting the capsule at a few of its shops in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California and Illinois inside every week, a spokesman for the corporate mentioned.
“We’re starting a phased rollout in choose places to permit us to make sure high quality, security, and privateness for our sufferers, suppliers, and crew members,” the Walgreens assertion learn.
The 2 pharmacies acquired certification from the Meals and Drug Administration to fill prescriptions and dispense the generally used capsule, increasing entry to abortion at a time when many states are additional proscribing a path to the process.
Final yr, the FDA handed a rule that permits pharmacies to fill prescriptions for abortion drugs. Earlier than this rule change was finalized, pregnant folks needed to get the drug straight from their docs or by mail by way of telehealth consultations.
Mifepristone stays on the heart of an ongoing authorized battle between anti-abortion activists and the FDA. Anti-abortion rights teams sued the company in 2022 over the approval of mifepristone — a drug that had been in use for greater than 20 years.
A federal decide dominated towards the abortion capsule final yr. However, the U.S. Supreme Court docket will hear this case later this month.
President Biden known as the transfer to certify the sale by the 2 main pharmacies “an essential milestone in making certain entry to mifepristone.”
He mentioned in a press release, “I encourage all pharmacies that need to pursue this feature to hunt certification.”
