The Biden administration is reminding about 60,000 retail pharmacies that they still must provide abortion pills, birth control and other reproductive care treatments under federal civil rights laws.
The guidance (PDF), sent by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday, comes in response to the Supreme Court decision to overturn a constitutional right to abortion. It is the latest move by the administration to ensure abortion access and comes on the heels of another guidance to providers that abortion remains a part of emergency care.
“HHS is committed to ensuring that everyone can access health care, free of discrimination,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra in a statement. “This includes access to prescription medication—including birth control, miscarriage management, and medication abortion from their pharmacy.”
Any recipients of federal funding such as Medicare or Medicaid payments must still adhere to federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination.
“This includes supplying medications; making determinations regarding the suitability of a prescribed medication for a patient; and advising patients about medications and how to take them,” a release on HHS said.
The agency added that pharmacies cannot discriminate based on a current pregnancy, past pregnancy or medical conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth, the release said.
HHS’ guidance gave examples that include if an individual experiences a miscarriage and the pharmacy refuses to fill the prescription for a drug that could also be used to terminate a pregnancy, that facility “may be discriminating on the basis of sex.”
This is the latest bid by the Biden administration to ensure reproductive health access in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, which triggered laws in several states banning abortion.
HHS released a guidance last week saying that providers are protected if they give lifesaving abortion services in an emergency. It also sent a letter to health insurers to remind them of their obligations to provide coverage for birth control at no cost under the Affordable Care Act.
The proposal earned a major pushback from the National Community Pharmacists Association, which said it would put smaller pharmacies in the "crossfire."
"States have provided very little clarity on how pharmacists should proceed in light of conflicting state and federal laws and regulations," said NCPA CEO Douglas Hoey in a statement Wednesday. "It is highly unfair for state and federal governments to threaten aggressive action against pharmacists who are just trying to serve their patients within new legal boundaries that are still taking shape."