Bricks-and-mortar retail pharmacies in the US will be able to offer abortion pills for the first time under rules changes made on Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration, in a significant win for reproductive rights activists looking to shore up access to the drugs after the Supreme Court decision last year to overturn Roe vs Wade.
Danco Laboratories, which distributes mifepristone, a medication used to terminate pregnancies within the first 10 weeks, said on Tuesday that the FDA had approved the regulatory change to pave the way for certified pharmacies to dispense the abortion drugs directly to patients after receiving a prescription from a doctor.
Under prior rules, the pills were only accessible at medical clinics or via mail-order online pharmacies, which first obtained temporary permission to distribute the drugs during the Covid-19 pandemic.