The Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday reversed a Biden-era mandate that pharmacies carry abortion drugs.
The agency, under President Joe Biden, sent a notice to about 60,000 retail pharmacies in 2022 stipulating that they had to provide drugs as a condition of serving patients with Medicare, Medicaid, or other federally-funded coverage.
That notice was issued in response to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that sent abortion back to the states.
After a 2023 court ruling in favor of religious pharmacies that opposed the mandate, the Biden administration altered the policy. However, critics said it was still unclear if pharmacies were required to carry abortion-inducing drugs under the revised rule.
On Tuesday, HHS said it took action “in light of the stated policy … to end the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion.”
In its notice rescinding the policy, published in the Federal Register, the HHS Office for Civil Rights said the 2023 update “can still be read as an effort to use taxpayer dollars to promote abortion and likely force pharmacists to participate in abortion even if doing so violated their convictions, which would be potentially against the law.”
The Biden administration framed the original 2022 mandate as a civil rights requirement for pharmacies under the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.
In the 2023 case of State of Texas and Mayo Pharmacy v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a court ruled in favor of pharmacy owners who did not want to sell abortion drugs as a matter of conscience.
The updated guidance “still subjected pro-life pharmacies across the country to a looming threat from federal bureaucrats,” Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Matt Bowman said in a statement.
“Now, we are grateful to the current administration for eliminating the remnants of this Biden-era abortion mandate by repealing it entirely.”
The rescission of the Biden rule says that the 2023 guidance “remains inconsistent with the law and the policies set forth” in two executive orders last year by President Donald Trump.
One of the orders enforces the Hyde Amendment that bars Medicaid and other tax dollars from funding abortions. The other order relates to the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, in terms of controlling government spending.
The 2023 Biden era mandate used the term “pregnant person.” The HHS post in the register noted this was also inconsistent with a Trump executive order that defines a “woman” or a “girl” as “female” based on biological facts.
“Accordingly, the term ‘pregnant person’ is unnecessarily broad since only women and girls can be pregnant,” the HHS recission states.
The HHS pharmacy action comes as the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday asked a federal court to pause a Louisiana lawsuit seeking to restrict mail-order abortion drugs. The administration asked for a pause until it has completed its safety review of the drugs.
Pro-life leaders are asking the Trump administration to take action against mail-order abortion drugs, and have requested the FDA complete its safety review.
