Costco Wholesale Corporation will not dispense the abortion medication mifepristone at its pharmacies.
The wholesaler did not immediately respond to questions from The Hill about the move, but the company told Reuters that the decision was made due to a lack of demand since patients typically receive the drug from their healthcare provider.
Some religious groups and anti-abortion activists praised Costo’s decision, which was first reported by Bloomberg.
“We applaud Costco for doing the right thing by its shareholders and resisting activist calls to sell abortion drugs,” wrote Michael Ross, legal counsel for the conservative religious coalition Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF.)
“Retailers like Costco keep their doors open by selling a lifetime of purchases to families, both large and small,” Ross continued. “They have nothing to gain and much to lose by becoming abortion dispensaries.”
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s Emily Erin Davis commended the move as a clear message the wholesaler “won’t be complicit in the abortion industry’s agenda to sell dangerous abortion drugs.”
CVS and Walgreens announced last year they had received certification to start dispensing the drug in states where abortion is legal, following a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policy change that made it easier for pharmacies to distribute mifepristone in person or in the mail.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander sent letters to Walmart, Costco, Kroger, Albertsons, and McKesson to follow suit and request certification to dispense the drug, warning that the companies’ failure to do so put women’s reproductive health care at risk.
None of the food and drug retailers responded to a request for comment from The Hill.
Conservative religious groups, like ADF, took issue and sent their own letters to the companies urging them to resist political pressure to provide abortion medication at their pharmacy locations.
“Retail pharmacies are there to serve the health and wellness of their customers, but abortion drugs like mifepristone undermine that mission by putting women’s health at risk,” said ADF Senior Counsel and Senior Vice President of Corporate Engagement Jeremy Tedesco.
Mifepristone was approved by the FDA in 2000 and is one of two drugs typically needed for a medication abortion, with the second being misoprostol. Following a legal challenge last year, the Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision that a group of anti-abortion doctors did not have any legal basis to challenge access to the abortion pill.
