U.S. warns pharmacists: Fill prescriptions for abortion pill
WASHINGTON — Federal officials Wednesday warned pharmacies to comply with civil rights law amid reports of pharmacists turning away women seeking to fill prescriptions for abortion medication and other treatments after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“As our nation faces another significant health care crisis, this guidance is to remind the roughly 60,000 retail pharmacies in the United States of the unique role pharmacies play in ensuring access to comprehensive reproductive health care services,” according to the guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services.
The officials highlighted recent news reports and legal filings that detail how pharmacists in states including Louisiana and Texas have refused to fill prescriptions for medication abortion, citing the high court’s decision on Roe and new state abortion restrictions taking effect.
Under the guidance issued Wednesday, officials pointed to federal civil rights laws, including provisions in the Affordable Care Act, that they said prohibit pharmacists from making their own decisions about the suitability of a prescribed medication for patients, as well as other situations that they said would constitute discrimination against patients. For instance, a woman who experiences a miscarriage may be prescribed drugs such as mifepristone and misoprostol, and health officials warned pharmacists against refusing to fill those prescriptions.
“The Department is committed to improving maternal health — including for individuals who experience miscarriages — and vigorous enforcement of our civil rights laws is one way in which we plan to do so,” the guidance says. “Discrimination against pregnant people on the basis of their pregnancy or related conditions … is a form of sex discrimination.”
But the guidance does not ensure universal access to abortion medication or represent new policy, focusing instead on the health department’s role in enforcing existing civil rights law. Officials warned that health-care providers failing to comply risk losing federal funding and incurring financial penalties.
A senior health department official, during a background briefing, told reporters that the decision to warn pharmacies is part of the government’s broader response to the abortion ruling.
“HHS is committed to ensuring everyone can access health care free of discrimination,” the official said.
“We think today’s guidance helps take a step in this direction in help providing patients, providers and pharmacists and pharmacies reassurances that federal law can help protect that access to care.”
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under guidelines set by the administration, also said that people who believed they have faced discrimination when seeking to fill abortion medication prescriptions can file formal complaints with the federal health agency’s civil rights office.
The fallout from the abortion ruling has ensnared patients seeking treatment for unrelated medical needs, according to cases cited by federal officials. For instance, methotrexate is a drug commonly used to treat rheumatic arthritis, but the drug has been restricted in some states because it has been used off-label to cause miscarriages and end ectopic pregnancies, prompting some pharmacists to deny the drug to women in recent weeks.
President Joe Biden and his deputies have scrambled to respond to last month’s abortion ruling, repeatedly highlighting other regulations that they say should still ensure access to reproductive health-care services. Administration officials earlier this week reminded physicians that, under federal law, they must provide for termination of a pregnancy when necessary to stabilize a patient in an emergency medical situation.
Wednesday’s move was panned as federal overreach by Roger Severino, who oversaw the health department’s civil rights arm during the Trump administration and said it was appropriate for pharmacists to screen patients before filling prescriptions.
“It’s an outrageous inversion of our civil rights laws to say that abortion is required to be assisted by our nation’s doctors and pharmacists,” Severino said.
Other experts praised the administration’s move and said it showed the power of Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, a provision that bans discrimination in health care and was targeted under the Trump administration but was repeatedly cited by Biden officials Wednesday as they warned pharmacies.