The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) scrapped a Biden-administration rule on Tuesday that required pharmacies to dispense abortion pills.
During the rabidly pro-abortion Biden presidency, the agency sent a notice to approximately 60,000 retail pharmacies telling them to provide abortion pills as a condition of serving patients with Medicare, Medicaid, or other federally funded coverage, The Daily Signal reported. The Biden administration put out the notice in 2022 in reaction to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned the invented federal right to abortion and sent the issue back to the states.
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In 2023, a court ruled in favor of religious pharmacies that opposed the Biden abortion mandate, and the administration changed the policy. However, critics of the rule said the altered policy still left pharmacies in a gray area.
President Donald Trump’s HHS this week said it took action against the Biden-era policy “in light of the state policy…to end the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortions.”
HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published a notice to the Federal Register rescinding the policy and saying the Biden administration’s 2023 update “can still be read as an effort to use taxpayer dollars to promote abortion and likely force pharmacists to participate in abortion even if doing so violated their convictions, which would be potentially against the law.”
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Matt Bowman, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), said the Biden administration’s small change in guidance after the court decision “still subjected pro-life pharmacies across the country to a looming threat from federal bureaucrats.” ADF represented pro-life pharmacies in State of Texas and Mayo Pharmacy v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, challenging the Biden mandate.
“Now, we are grateful to the current administration for eliminating the remnants of this Biden-era abortion mandate by repealing it entirely,” Bowman said in a statement. “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.”
The Trump HHS’s rescission says the 2023 guidance “remains inconsistent with the law and the policies set forth” in two executive orders President Trump signed last year, including one enforcing the Hyde Amendment and another related to controlling government spending.
Trump’s HHS also scrapped the Biden administration’s use of the term “pregnant person,” pointing out the fact that “only women and girls can be pregnant.”
“The HHS pharmacy action comes as the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday asked a federal court to pause a Louisiana lawsuit seeking to restrict mail-order abortion drugs,” according to the Signal report. “The administration asked for a pause until it has completed its safety review of the drugs.”
Pro-life leaders and Republicans have asked the Trump administration to reverse the Biden administration’s mail order abortion scheme and complete a safety review of abortion pills.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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