Pro-life groups have begun protesting Walgreens and CVS after the companies announced plans to dispense abortion pills following a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory change.
Roughly 100 pro-life activists led by Live Action protested outside of a Walgreens shareholders meeting on Thursday in Newport Coast, California. Live Action founder and president, Lila Rose, said Walgreens is “on track to becoming on 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,” Rose 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.”
Live Action protests pharmacies selling abortion pills (Photo courtesy of Live Action).
Live Action protests pharmacies selling abortion pills (Photo courtesy of Live Action).
In early January, the FDA made a regulatory change allowing retail pharmacies to offer Mifepristone — the first pill used in a two-drug medication abortion regimen — in-store and by mail order, though patients will still need a prescription from a certified healthcare provider.
At the same time, the FDA officially removed the in-person requirement from its regulatory rule book for Mifepristone, meaning women will continue to be able to obtain a prescription for the abortion pill via telemedicine. The FDA made the move the same day President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) cleared the U.S. Postal Service to deliver abortion drugs to states with abortion restrictions and bans, offering “limited assurances that a federal law addressing the issue won’t be used to prosecute people criminally over such mailings,” according to Politico.
After the rule change, spokespeople from Walgreens and CVS confirmed the chains would offer Mifepristone at locations where it is not against state law, and Rite Aid followed closely behind.
Containers of the medication used to end an early pregnancy sit on a table inside a Planned Parenthood clinic Friday, Oct. 29, 2021, in Fairview Heights, Ill. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson // Insets: CVS and Walgreens).
Students for Life is organizing protests with other pro-life groups, according to a Catholic News Agency (CNA) report. The group’s first major demonstration, entitled “Cancel Abortion Cartels” is set for February 14 at the Walgreens National Headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois. The group has also called for a National Day of Protest at pharmacies across the country 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 continued.
According to the report, 40 Day for Life is also encouraging peaceful protests at pharmacies during its 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 CNA 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.”
Breitbart News reached out to both CVS Health and Walgreens for comment about the protests. CVS Health did not respond by the time of publication, but Walgreens Senior Director of External Relations Fraser Engerman sent a statement stating that the company will dispense abortion bills consistent with federal and state laws. He said:
We intend to become a certified pharmacy under the program. 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.
Former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino explained in his videos about various abortion procedures how drug-induced abortions work. The first drug, Mifepristone, blocks the action of progesterone, which the mother’s body produces to nourish the pregnancy. When progesterone is blocked, the lining of the mother’s uterus deteriorates, and blood and nourishment are cut off to the developing baby, who then dies inside the mother’s womb. The drug Misoprostol (also called Cytotec) then causes contractions and bleeding to expel the baby from the mother’s uterus.
The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute found that Mifepristone is used for more than half of all abortions in the United States. In 2020, the drug accounted for 53 percent of all abortions, up from 39 percent in 2017.