(Oregon Right to Life) — Hundreds of investors and thousands of Costco customers are urging popular stores including Walmart and Costco not to dispense the abortion pill mifepristone after a New York City official wrote to the corporations’ CEOs pushing them to distribute the drug.
Oregon Right to Life has also launched a petition to urge the CEOs not to agree to sell the pill.
Late last month, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander wrote to the CEOs of Albertsons, Costco, Walmart, Kroger, and McKesson, urging them to begin doling out the abortion pill in their pharmacies. According to a press release from Lander’s office, New York City’s “pension funds hold over $1.3 billion in total shares of these companies.”
Lander argued that “[m]aking mifepristone available benefits customers and employees, increases sales, and generates long-term shareholder value.”
Hundreds of investors, dozens of financial managers, and some 6,000 Costco members have responded by countering the push from the New York City Comptroller, urging the companies not to dispense the pills.
“The ‘growing market opportunity’ of abortion drugs is legally and politically fraught, raises significant reputational issues, and reduces the company’s customer base, both literally and because it would drive away many existing customers,” the financial managers wrote, according to The Washington Examiner.
The abortion pill in question, mifepristone, blocks the action of the growth hormone progesterone, causing the unborn human being in the womb to die of starvation. The second drug in the chemical abortion regimen, misoprostol, is taken 24–72 hours later to induce contractions to expel the body.
RELATED: Fact Sheet: What is Chemical Abortion?
The push to expand distribution of mifepristone to big-box and popular grocery stores follows a series of federal changes to eliminate restrictions on where and how the drugs may be dispensed, including several recent ones encouraged and backed by the pro-abortion Biden-Harris administration.
In 2016, the FDA implemented a new policy that widened the timeframe in which mifepristone could be prescribed during pregnancy. In 2021, the FDA permitted the drug to be prescribed online and distributed via mail. Local pharmacies were also authorized to dispense mifepristone, and in January 2023, that permission was extended to drug stores.
CVS and Walgreens began dispensing mifepristone in select locations in March of this year.
In addition to the concerned investors, financial managers, and Costco members, pro-life organization Live Action has also encouraged pro-life advocates to join their voices in opposition to Walmart, Costco, and other stores supplying the drugs.
“Government officials have no business demanding companies dispense deadly abortion drugs,” the organization said. “Consumers have the power to change the way major corporations act when they come together and make their voices heard.”
Pro-life advocates nationwide increasingly see the widespread availability of the abortion pill as the next major hurdle to overcome in the movement to protect unborn life.
Chemical abortions currently comprise more than half of all abortions nationwide. Laws in pro-life states do prohibit prescription of the pills, but women in those states are reportedly accessing the drugs anyway through virtual telehealth appointments and mail-order delivery.
National political leaders and institutions have not moved to reestablish federal limits.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a case brought by pro-life medical professionals challenging the recent loosening of guardrails on mifepristone. The decision was based on procedural grounds, which means the substance of the case could come back before the nation’s highest court before long.
READ: US Supreme Court Rejects Case Against Abortion Pill Mifepristone
In the meantime, U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris this year publicly celebrated the decision by CVS and Walgreens to dispense the drug in some stores, and vowed that the Biden-Harris administration would “not waver in our dedication to preserving access” to the pill.
Prominent Republicans in the national political scene haven’t been pushing back against the ongoing distribution of the drug.
Former U.S. President and current Republican nominee Donald Trump, along with his running mate J.D. Vance, have both said they supported the U.S. Supreme Court’s move not to restrict mifepristone, disappointing many pro-life advocates.
However, pro-life organizations and leaders have emphasized that the Trump-Vance ticket continues to represent a position far more favorable to the protection of innocent human life than that advanced by Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz, both of whom have radically pro-abortion records.
