A year after the FDA allowed eligible pharmacies a pathway to dispense abortion pill mifepristone, CVS and Walgreens confirmed to Becker's they gained approval and will soon offer the medication.
Mifepristone is the first therapy in a two-drug regimen the FDA approved in 2000. Medication abortion is approved to terminate a pregnancy in the first 10 weeks of gestation, but anti-abortion movements rolling across the nation are hampering access to reproductive medications.
On March 1, spokespeople for CVS and Walgreens told Becker's they secured the FDA's certification for retail pharmacies to distribute the medication that was previously dispensed at physician offices and mail-order companies. CVS and Walgreens will not be shipping mifepristone through its mail-order services, according to The New York Times, which first reported the news.
CVS is not yet offering the medication, but a spokesperson said the chain's pharmacies in Massachusetts and Rhode Island will begin filling mifepristone prescriptions "in the weeks ahead and will expand to additional states, where allowed by law, on a rolling basis."
Walgreens plans to dispense the drug within a week in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania.
The CVS spokesperson declined to comment further on which states mifepristone will be available at pharmacy counters, and Walgreens said it is exploring other states where the practice is legal. Fifteen states require a physician to dole out mifepristone, and 14 states have abortion bans that outlaw medication abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute.