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CVS and Walgreens plan to offer abortion pills where abortion is legal

CVS and Walgreens say they plan to seek certification to sell the pill, mifepristone, the first pill used in the two-drug medication abortion regimen.  (Getty Images)
By Pam Belluck New York Times

Two major pharmacy chains will apply to sell abortion pills under a new Food and Drug Administration regulation that will allow the medication to be offered by retail pharmacies for the first time.

The chains, CVS and Walgreens, said they planned to seek certification to sell the pill, mifepristone, the first pill used in the two-drug medication abortion regimen. Patients will still need a prescription from a certified health care provider, but the new federal action could significantly expand access to medication abortion because it allows any pharmacy that agrees to accept those prescriptions and abide by certain other criteria to dispense the pills in its stores and by mail order.

The pharmacy chains did not provide details about when they expected to be able to offer the pills, in which states or whether they would offer them only in stores or via mail order, or both. They said they would comply with laws in states that ban or restrict abortion, currently about half of the states.

The steps for pharmacies to become certified to dispense mifepristone are not difficult, but they involve some administrative requirements that go beyond the process pharmacies use with most other medications.

For chains like CVS and Walgreens, the most logistically intricate step might be the requirement that pharmacies keep confidential the names of the certified health providers who prescribe mifepristone to protect their privacy and safety.

Mifepristone, which blocks a hormone necessary for pregnancy development, is authorized by the FDA to be taken in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, although many clinics and telemedicine providers have begun offering it up to 12 or 13 weeks into pregnancy. This is a step they can legally take because most states allow physicians to use medical discretion to prescribe a drug for a particular “off label” use if there is scientific evidence that it is safe and effective for that use.

The second drug in the regimen, misoprostol, has never been as tightly restricted as mifepristone and is used for many different medical conditions. Misoprostol, which causes contractions that expel pregnancy tissue, is taken 24 to 48 hours after mifepristone.

Mifepristone is currently approved only for abortion. But it is also used in the treatment of some miscarriages, and there may be pressure for pharmacies to dispense it for that purpose as well.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.