Drugstore giants Walgreens and CVS will soon begin dispensing the abortion pill mifepristone to patients with a doctor's prescription, the chains confirmed Friday.
Both chains have received certification to dispense the drug in stores under guidelines the Food and Drug Administration issued last year and expect to begin dispensing the pills within a month.
"Walgreens has completed the FDA certification process to dispense mifepristone and expects to begin dispensing within a week, consistent with federal and state laws. 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," spokesman Marty Maloney said in a statement to NBC News.
CVS told NBC News, "We’ve received certification to dispense mifepristone at CVS Pharmacy and plan to fill prescriptions for this medication in states where legally permissible."
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"We’re working with manufacturers and suppliers to secure the medication and are not yet dispensing it in any of our pharmacies. We’ll begin filling prescriptions for the medication in Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the weeks ahead and will expand to additional states, where allowed by law, on a rolling basis."
Mifepristone is used in combination with another pill, misoprostol, in a majority of abortions nationwide. It is approved for use up to around 10 weeks of pregnancy.
The certifications are expected to give more people access to the drug at a time when access to abortion services is being hotly debated in statehouses across the country and has become a central focus of the 2024 presidential race.
The Supreme Court is also slated to hear oral arguments on how patients can access mifepristone on March 26 in a case brought by the conservative group Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine challenging policies expanding access to mifepristone.
President Joe Biden praised the certification in a statement.
"Today is an important milestone in ensuring access to mifepristone, a drug that has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as safe and effective for more than 20 years. 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."
"The stakes could not be higher for women across America," the statement continued. "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."
