CVS and Walgreens to Start Selling Abortion Pills This Month

Mar. 15, 2025

pharmacist assisting a customer – stock image.Photo:Getty

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CVS and Walgreens will begin selling theabortion pillmifepristone in the coming weeks.

CVS, Walgreens.Getty Images; David J Phillip/AP/Shutterstock

As Walgreens has completed the FDA certification process to dispense mifepristone, the company plans to begin distributing it within a week in select locations in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California and Illinois, Fraser Engerman, a spokesman for the company, toldThe New York Times.

“We are beginning a phased rollout in select locations to allow us to ensure quality, safety, and privacy for our patients, providers, and team members,” Walgreenssaid in a statement. The company’s goal “is to gradually expand availability to locations in all legally permissible states in a phased approach.”

Engerman toldThe New York Timesthat Walgreens was “not going to dispense in states where the laws are unclear” to protect its pharmacists and staff members.

Amy Thibault, a spokeswoman for CVS, also toldThe New York Timesthat CVS will begin dispensing in all of its pharmacies in Massachusetts and Rhode Island “in the weeks ahead.”

For now, CVS is “working with manufacturers and suppliers to secure the medication and are not yet dispensing it” in any of their pharmacies, reportsNBC News.

mifepristone (L) and misoprostol tablets.ELISA WELLS/PLAN C/AFP via Getty

Both companies are monitoring legislation in Kansas, Montana, Wyoming and other states for possible distribution at a later date, reportsThe New York Times.

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“Many women will soon have the option to pick up their prescription at a local, certified pharmacy — just as they would for any other medication,” Biden, 81, said, encouraging “all pharmacies” to seek certification if they are interested in dispensing the abortion pill.

In January 2023, a spokesperson for Walgreens toldCBS News, “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.”

source: people.com