Pro-life groups have begun protesting Walgreens and CVS in response to the companies’ plans to sell abortion pills after a rule change implemented by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made it legal to dispense these dangerous drugs outside of a doctor’s office.
The FDA made the regulatory change in early January, which allows retail pharmacies to sell mifepristone — the first pill used in a two-drug medication abortion regimen.
Pharmacists will now be able to dispense the pills, though the patients will still have to get a prescription from a certified healthcare provider.
The rule change also removed the in-person requirement to receive prescriptions of the abortion drug, allowing women to get their prescriptions via telemedicine.
Following the FDA’s rule change, spokespeople from Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid announced that their pharmacies would begin selling mifepristone where legal.
BREAKING: @Walgreens and @cvspharmacy will dispense the deadly abortion pill. Horrific.
These drugs have killed 5.6 million children and pose a serious risk to a mother's health.
The Pro-Life House majority MUST stop the reckless Biden FDA. https://t.co/bjIMOdYW97
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) January 6, 2023
On Thursday, around 100 pro-life activists joined together, led by Live Action, to protest outside of a Walgreens shareholders meeting in Newport Coast, California.
Speaking out against the business’s decision to dispense the drugs, Live Action founder and president Lila Rose argued that Walgreens was “on track to becoming one of the biggest abortionists in the nation.”
“They are no longer a healthcare company but an abortion company. It is disgusting and repulsive to the American people that a pharmacist preparing allergy medication and blood pressure pills will now also be packaging and handing out deadly poison intended to kill children,” she said in a statement. “Walgreens—and other companies choosing to make a quick buck by pedaling the deadly abortion pill—can never be taken seriously as a healthcare company again. Mothers and children will not be safe until these drugs are taken off the market.”
Students for Life has organized demonstrations with other pro-life groups, Catholic News Agency reported.
The first major protest has been planned for February 14 at the Walgreens National Headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois, and has been titled “Cancel Abortion Cartels.”
Students for Life is also calling for a National Day of Protest at pharmacies across the U.S. on March 4.
“Our purpose of having these protests is so that we can let ‘Big Pharma’ companies know that it’s absolutely unacceptable to offer abortion at our neighborhood drug stores,” said Caroline Wharton, a writer and press strategist with Students for Life.
“I don’t want to go into a drugstore and be able to buy my chewing gum and my tights and then get a pill that ends a life. It’s just not acceptable,” she added.
A pro-life group called 40 Days for Life has echoed the calls for national protests, encouraging pro-life activists to peacefully protest at pharmacies during a February 22 – April 2 campaign.
“CVS and Walgreens have replaced Planned Parenthood as the most significant abortion chains in the Western Hemisphere,” Shawn Carney, president, and CEO of 40 Days for Life, told Catholic News Agency on January 24. “With 18,000 locations between the two, and now Rite Aid joining in, we have given the hundreds of 40 Days for Life campaign leaders not currently leading a campaign the opportunity to do so outside a pharmacy.”
