Abortion meds can now be sold in drugstores. Here’s why that’s so important.

On March 1, the New York Times reported that over the following few weeks, some retail pharmacies owned by Walgreens and CVS will begin dispensing mifepristone, a key drug used in medication abortions.

It’s a big change: Before the pandemic, people could only obtain the drug in-person at the office or clinic of the health care provider who prescribed it. But in 2021, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) removed that in-person dispensing requirement, opening the door to getting abortion medications through the mail — an important second option for people seeking an abortion. At the same time, the agency said it would create a pathway for retail pharmacies to get certified to dispense mifepristone, giving Americans a third way to access the drug.

In early 2023, less than a year after the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, the FDA finalized changes to its rules that newly allowed brick-and-mortar pharmacies to dispense the drug. (Although the FDA can’t decide in which states abortion is legal or whether there’s a national right to abortion, it can and often does modify its rules that determine who can prescribe drugs used in having an abortion; who can dispense them; and what hoops prescribers, patients, and pharmacies have to jump through when they’re used.) Late last year, independent pharmacies began dispensing the drug, and last week’s news indicates national pharmacy chains are also getting on board.