AXIOS, by Oriana Gonzalez: Walgreens and CVS, two of the largest U.S. pharmacy chains, plan to start offering abortion pills, following the Food and Drug Administration’s Tuesday announcement that it will allow retail pharmacies to offer the drug, the companies told Axios.
The big picture: Under the FDA’s regulatory change, pharmacies can apply to become certified to dispense mifepristone, which is used in first-trimester abortions.
Pharmacies still need to comply with the laws of the state they are located in, some of which restrict the ability to provide abortion pills.
Certified pharmacies can offer mifepristone only after receiving a prescription from a certified health provider.
What they’re saying: A Walgreens spokesperson said that it is taking the steps “to become a certified pharmacy,” becoming the first national pharmacy chain to make such an announcement.
“We are working through the registration, necessary training of our pharmacists, as well as evaluating our pharmacy network in terms of where we normally dispense products that have extra FDA requirements and will dispense these consistent with federal and state laws,” the Walgreens spokesperson added.
Shortly after Walgreen’s statement went public, a CVS spokesperson told Axios that the company plans “to seek certification to dispense mifepristone where legally permissible.”
What we’re watching: Some independent pharmacies are interested in becoming mifepristone certified, said Ronna Hauser, senior vice president of policy and pharmacy affairs at the National Community Pharmacists Association, which has 19,400 members.
“It will be a personal business decision for our members to participate based on local considerations where their pharmacy is located,” Hauser added.
Prophetic Link:
“This is an age when corruption is teeming everywhere. The lust of the eye and corrupt passions are aroused by beholding and by reading. The heart is corrupted through the imagination. The mind takes pleasure in contemplating scenes which awaken the lower and baser passions. These vile images, seen through defiled imagination, corrupt the morals and prepare the deluded, infatuated beings to give loose rein to lustful passions. Then follow sins and crimes which drag beings formed in the image of God down to a level with the beasts, sinking them at last in perdition.” Adventist Home, page 408.1.