The Trump administration has a history of protecting providers who don’t want to perform services that conflict with their conscience or faith.
Health care professionals who oppose abortion know the consequences of refusing to dispense abortion drugs under an abortion advocating-president. CVS has fired plenty of nurse practitioners who worked in the MinuteClinic who refused to dispense drugs that induce abortions. At least one nurse had her religious accommodation revoked.
Pharmacists have had their fair share of legal trouble doing the same, but the Trump administration has provided relief.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has rescinded the Biden administration’s “unclear guidance on whether pharmacists are required to keep harmful abortion drugs in stock.”
The Biden administration issued a mandate in 2022 that pharmacies accepting Medicare and Medicaid must stock and dispense drugs that induce abortions like mifepristone (starves baby) and misoprostol (expels baby). The state of Texas challenged the mandate in court and won.
Under revised guidance issued in 2023, according to the Federal Register, Biden’s HHS removed mifepristone and added language that removed the requirement for pharmacies to carry or fill prescriptions for drugs that induce abortions. HHS also added references to protections under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
But President Trump’s HHS said the revised 2023 mandate “remains inconsistent with the law and the policies set forth in E.O. 14182 and E.O. 14219” and scrapped it altogether.
Matt Bowman, an ADF attorney, said the organization is grateful to the Trump administration.
“HHS’s decision will protect our former client and pharmacies around the country who are fully within their rights to decline to stock or dispense abortion drugs.”
Photo credit: Robin Marty (Creative Commons) – Some rights reserved
