Abortion Pill Revolution: CVS and Walgreens Now Selling Abortion Pills, While Telehealth Abortion Soars
With brick-and-mortar pharmacies beginning to sell abortion pills and increasing access to telemedicine abortion services in all 50 states, more people can find the abortion care they need. Two developments are significantly increasing access to abortion pills, which have been available for over two decades but highly restricted until recently: CVS and Walgreens announced they will begin dispensing abortion pills at brick-and-mortar pharmacies in some states, and the Society of Family Planning released its #WeCount report showing that telehealth abortion has increased to 16 percent of all abortions.
Expansion into Retail Pharmacies
CVS and Walgreens—the two largest pharmacy chains in the U.S.—announced they will start dispensing the abortion pill mifepristone. CVS will begin dispensing the medication in all of its pharmacies in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, while Walgreens will offer abortion pills in some of its pharmacies in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California and Illinois. CVS has over 9,000 stores in all 50 states while Walgreens has about 8,500 stores in all states except North Dakota.
“Today’s announcement from CVS and Walgreens shows what we have always known: Medication abortion can and should be treated as any other FDA-approved medication,” said Kirsten Moore, director of the Expanding Medication Abortion Access Project. Pharmacy dispensing means that more healthcare providers can prescribe abortion pills without having to stock the medications themselves, which can be burdensome, or having pills sent from mail-order pharmacies, which can cause delays. CVS and Walgreens say they plan to eventually offer abortion pills in about half of states, but will not dispense mifepristone in states that ban abortion or restrict pharmacy distribution of the medication.
Comparison of Pharmacy and Telehealth Access
| Provider / Category | Scope and Impact |
|---|---|
| CVS Pharmacy | Starting in MA and RI; over 9,000 stores across 50 states. |
| Walgreens Pharmacy | Starting in NY, PA, MA, CA, and IL; ~8,500 stores in 49 states. |
| Telehealth Abortion | Now accounts for 16 percent of all abortions in the United States. |
| Virginia Data (2021) | 56% of the roughly 17,000 abortions in the state were via medication. |
The Rise of Telemedicine and Legal Challenges
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA expanded access to abortion pills by removing a longstanding and medically unnecessary requirement that only healthcare providers dispense the mifepristone in person. The FDA began allowing telehealth abortion permanently in December 2021. As a result, healthcare providers could consult with their patients by video, phone, text or online form, and then mail abortion pills to their patients or have the medications sent by mail-order pharmacies.
However, mifepristone has become the latest flashpoint in abortion debates. A group of abortion providers are suing the Food and Drug Administration in an effort to block potential new restrictions on the use of the abortion pill mifepristone in Virginia, Montana and Kansas. The case is the latest in a string of legal challenges related to the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, which is used as part of a two-drug regimen to terminate pregnancies up to about 10 weeks.
Regulatory Hurdles and Medical Barriers
The FDA still requires healthcare providers to be certified to prescribe the medication, a restriction advocates argue is medically unnecessary and creates barriers to access. Abortion providers challenge current restrictions placed by the FDA on the drug, including requirements that patients sign a special form prior to being prescribed mifepristone. These “burdensome restrictions,” the groups argue, make mifepristone “seem uniquely dangerous” while making it “harder for clinicians to prescribe, harder for pharmacies to dispense, and harder for patients to access.”