Biden admin to pharmacies: Refusing to fill contraception and abortion pill prescriptions could break federal law

Senior Biden administration officials announced Wednesday that they are reminding tens of thousands of pharmacies around the country that they risk violating civil rights laws if they refuse to fill orders for contraception or abortion medication or discriminate based on a person’s pregnancy status.

The action comes a few weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and gave more than a dozen states a green light to ban abortion, and aims to respond to a wave of reports that pharmacies in those states are refusing to not only fill prescriptions for abortion and contraception pills but also other medications that they speculate could be used off-label to terminate a pregnancy.

“Under federal civil rights law, pregnancy discrimination includes discrimination based on current pregnancy, past pregnancy, potential or intended pregnancy, and medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth,” reads new guidance, which the Department of Health and Human Services is sending to more than 60,000 retail pharmacies this week.

Citing provisions in the Affordable Care Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the memo argues that pharmacies that receive federal funding can’t discriminate based on their views on contraception and abortion “in regard to supplying medications; making determinations regarding the suitability of a prescribed medication for a patient; or advising patients about medications and how to take them.” The guidance includes several examples of situations that could be a legal violation, including a pharmacist refusing to fill a prescription for the abortion pill mifepristone for someone experiencing the kind of early miscarriage that the pill is used to treat.