On March 1, CVS and Walgreens announced that they would start selling Mifepristone, also known as the “abortion pill,” which is a pill that is one of the most popular ways to cause an abortion. According to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), the use of this medicine for abortion has almost doubled in the last 2 years. 

Both major pharmaceutical corporations have gotten the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy certifications from the Food and Drug Administration that are required to sell any drug. This certification makes sure that the medication is safe and that the benefits are higher than the disadvantages. 

A CVS spokesperson made a statement to The Hill saying, “We’ve received certification to dispense Mifepristone at CVS Pharmacy and plan to fill prescriptions for this medication in states where legally permissible. We’re working with manufacturers and suppliers to secure the medication and are not yet dispensing it in any of our pharmacies.”

Abortions were first legalized in 1973 when the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Roe in the historically significant Roe v. Wade Court case. This allowed specified cases the right to legally get an abortion. As listed out by the PPFA, those extenuating circumstances were if the abortion were to “save a woman’s life or for limited reasons such as preserving the woman’s health, or instances of rape, incest, or fetal anomaly.” 

In 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned, reversing the national right to get an abortion. The ruling was passed 6-to-3, with the Republican justices voting it through. Due to the overruling of Roe v. Wade, each individual state is making its own decisions on whether making government policies on abortions is unconstitutional or not. 

Per the New York Times, to date there are 24 states that are allowing abortions to be legal with varying degrees of certainty for if they will remain in place. A few of these states include California, New York, and Colorado. Most of the states that are making abortion legal were politically liberal in the last presidential election.

As of now there are 21 states that have banned abortions either fully or at different stages of pregnancy. Some of these states include Texas, Oklahoma, and Idaho. The majority of the states that have banned or restricted abortions to some degree have in the past been of the Republican political affiliation.

President Biden has fully supported CVS and Walgreens’ decision to sell Mifepristone. In a statement to The Hill, Biden said, “with major retail pharmacy chains newly certified to dispense medication abortion, 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. I encourage all pharmacies that want to pursue this option to seek certification.”

Later in his official statement he added, “in the face of relentless attacks on reproductive freedom by Republican elected officials, Vice President Harris and I will continue to fight to ensure that women can get the health care they need, to defend the Food and Drug Administration’s independent and evidence-based approval and regulation of Mifepristone, and to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in Federal Law.”

A federal court case against the FDA ruling Mifepristone safe ended up with the ruling that the drug can remain classified as healthy, but reversing the spreading access to the drug. Due to how controversial the topic of legal abortions is, the US Supreme Court has decided to review the federal case on March 26.