Pharmacists have begun prescribing abortion pills, not simply dispensing the medication — a development intended to broaden abortion access by taking advantage of rules that give them prescribing ability in most states.
The new effort is small so far — a pilot program in Washington State — but the idea is expected to be tried in other states where abortion remains legal.
“I think it is going to expand, and it is expanding,” said Michael Hogue, chief executive of the American Pharmacists Association, a national professional organization, which is not involved in the new program and does not take a position on abortion.
Nearly 40 states now allow pharmacists to prescribe at least some medications and they are trained to do so, he said. He added that in his organization’s view, it makes sense to have “someone so accessible in a local community be able to provide safe access to therapies that might sometimes be difficult to get.”
Supporters of abortion rights consider pharmacist prescribing part of an effort to open as many avenues as possible at a time when abortion pills are facing growing attacks from abortion opponents.
Pharmacists are regulated by states, so their ability to prescribe specific medications cannot be blocked by the federal government. But if the incoming Trump administration wanted to stop pharmacists from prescribing abortion pills, it could try to reinstate Food and Drug Administration regulations that required that only doctors prescribe mifepristone, the first pill in the two-drug medication abortion regimen.
