Trump Protects Pro-Life Pharmacists Who Don’t Want to Sell Abortion Pills
The Department of Health and Human Services, through its Office for Civil Rights (OCR), has issued a clear notice that pro-lifers will welcome: pharmacies nationwide are no longer required to supply the abortion drug.
Under the Biden administration, policies in favor of abortion dramatically increased. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision — which returned abortion regulation to the states and the people — the former administration issued guidance pressuring nearly 60,000 retail pharmacies to stock and dispense mifepristone and misoprostol for patients with Medicare, Medicaid, or other federally funded coverage. This move drew significant criticism and legal challenges from the onset, as many argued it overrode conscience rights and state laws.
Litigation in 2023, including cases brought by states like Texas and religious pharmacies, led courts to uphold protections for religious liberty and conscience. The Biden HHS responded by revising the guidance, stating that it didn’t mandate dispensing for abortion purposes or violate state bans, while nodding to laws like the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Yet ambiguities remained, critics argued, fueling ongoing court battles that demanded stronger assurances against federal overreach.
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Now, in the second Trump administration, the HHS has fully rescinded that 2023 guidance — a step that aligns with key executive orders issued in early 2025. For example, the January 2025 executive order, “Enforcing the Hyde Amendment,” reaffirmed Congress’s established protections against using federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortions, while also revoking prior Biden-era directives that had weakened those protections. A subsequent February 2025 executive order on lawful governance and the Department of Government Efficiency initiative directed agencies to review and eliminate regulations or guidances that go beyond legal authority or impose unnecessary burdens.
HHS determined that the Biden-era guidance, even with its changes, remained problematic: it risked being interpreted as pressuring pharmacies to dispense abortion-related drugs, still clashed with conscience protections, employed ideologically-charged language, and rested on legal interpretations that courts had questioned. In fact, as part of these concerns, HHS also specifically scrapped the Biden administration’s use of the term “pregnant people,” asserting that only women are able to get pregnant.
By rescinding it entirely, the administration aimed to eliminate any lingering coercion on pharmacists coming from the federal level. Decisions about stocking or dispensing abortion drugs now rest with state laws, individual pharmacists’ professional judgment, and their conscience rights protected by the Constitution.
Proponents view this as a resounding victory for religious freedom, safeguarding taxpayer dollars, conscience protections, and limited government — one that honors longstanding federal policy without infringing on states’ authority to set their own rules on abortion. Matt Bowman, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), expressed gratitude to the current administration for “eliminating the remnants of this Biden-era abortion mandate by repealing it entirely.” He added that the “HHS’s decision will protect … pharmacies around the country who are fully within their rights to decline to stock or dispense abortion drugs.”
Family Research Council’s Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity, also welcomed this latest development as a step in the right direction. As she told The Washington Stand, “I am so grateful that the Trump administration has recognized that the Biden administration’s policy of forcing pharmacies that received federal funds to stock the abortion drug, mifepristone, was a clear violation of conscience rights and of the Hyde Amendment protecting taxpayer dollars from paying for abortion.”
Szoch went on to explain how the Biden administration’s guidance was issued “under the guise of protecting the ‘rights of women and pregnant people.’ Praise God that we once again have an administration in office that recognizes only women can be pregnant.” Like many pro-life advocates, Szoch emphasized the need to keep implementing pro-life policies, as well as the continued removal of policies that hinder pro-life advancement. “I look forward to the Trump administration’s continued work promoting conscience rights and the dignity of every person,” she stressed.
Indeed, pro-lifers continue to urge the Trump administration to protect babies and mothers from the abortion pill altogether, which now accounts for 63% of all abortions in the U.S. — even in states with pro-life laws. This is largely because the drugs can be easily ordered and shipped directly to one’s door through the mail — another specific area where the Trump administration faces pressure to act. In fact, a 2025 poll revealed that at least 70% of American voters want chemical abortion to have more safeguards. Reportedly, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is conducting a safety review of the drug. Yet, amid this very review, the FDA also quietly approved a new generic version of mifepristone (expected to become available soon), leaving many pro-lifers puzzled and concerned.
So, while the latest development has been met with open arms by pro-lifers like Szoch, the movement has made itself clear that the fight is far from over. The abortion drug “has caused the death of millions of unborn children and sent more than one in 10 pregnant women who use it to the emergency room,” Szoch concluded. “I hope that this work will include revoking the approval of mifepristone all together.”
LifeNews Note: Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand, where this originally appeared.
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