They are two corporations that, within the last week, have announced they will no longer offer the abortion drug Mifepristone on their websites.
Online sales are one way pro-abortion medical personnel have worked to undermine anti-abortion restrictions in conservative states.
Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton earlier this month filed a lawsuit against Margaret Daley Carpenter, a New York doctor and founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, whose mission statement says it aims to “support the clinicians who serve patients across the U.S.”
The lawsuit says Carpenter willingly provided “abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents” in direct violation of state law.
Pro-abortion groups have ignored the significant risks associated with abortion-inducing medications, Szoch said.
The ACLU and others have even compared Mifepristone to Tylenol. That assurance is far from the truth, says Mary Szoch, director for the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council.
“Mifepristone is a horrific drug," Szoch said on Washington Watch Friday. "It cuts off a woman's progesterone production, meaning it cuts the actual nourishment to the unborn child, and so it essentially starves an unborn child to death."
Because it also puts the pregnant woman at risk, she added, on average it sends 1 in 25 women to a hospital emergency room.
The New York Times, known for its liberal bias, has reported that 1 in 20 women who use Mifepristone require follow-up surgery, Szoch said.
Mifepristone also leads to confusion with a possible ectopic pregnancy. An ectopic pregnancy is one in which the egg settles outside the uterus rather than inside as with a normal pregnancy.
The fertilized egg implants itself, perhaps, in a fallopian tube, ovary, abdomen or cervix dues to a blockage or other abnormality in the fallopian tube.
Studies have shown that an ectopic pregnancy occurs in one out of every 50 pregnancies in the U.S.
“Ectopic pregnancy is a huge -- women who are greatly at risk for having an ectopic pregnancy go undiagnosed if they take mifepristone because they can mistake the pain and bleeding from from an ectopic pregnancy for the pain and bleeding that could have been caused by the abortion drug. Ectopic pregnancies account for 13% of maternal deaths. So, this drug is incredibly risky for women to take,” Szoch told show host Jody Hice.
Kroger’s response
Kroger removed Mifepristone from its website Dec. 17 following a back-and-forth email exchange with The Washington Stand, the online news out of the FRC.
The availability of Mifepristone on Kroger’s website was first reported by Live Action News, an Arlington, Virginia-based pro-life outlet.
Kroger, the second-largest grocery chain in the U.S., is also the country’s sixth-largest pharmacy chain, earning prescription revenues of $14.5 billion in 2023, The Washington Stand reported.
Both Kroger and Sam’s Club have stated the availability of Mifepristone on their websites was the result of an error, The Washington Stand reported.
Sam’s attributed the error to “third-party vender” on their website.
Abortion drugs have been available in the U.S. since the turn of the century, but the Biden administration has steadily loosened restrictions for their use. In December of 2021 the administration removed the in-person requirement to prescribe the drug.
Ectopic pregnancies aside, other possible health hazards include bleeding, infection, retained fetal parts, the need for surgery, and even death.
In March of this year, CVS and Walgreens became the first to provide Mifepristone online and announcing they had received Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) certifications from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Biden was exuberant and called for expanded access, The Hill reported.
“With major retail pharmacy chains newly certified to dispense medication abortion, many women will soon have the option to pick up their prescription at a local, certified pharmacy—just as they would for any other medication. I encourage all pharmacies that want to pursue this option to seek certification,” he said in a statement.
Szoch: Don’t bow to pressure
Both sides in the abortion debate agree removal of Mifepristone from Kroger and Sam’s Club websites is a victory for the pro-life side.
Retailers should not “bow down to pressure” from Democrats and the abortion industry, Szoch said.
“I think one thing that these companies need to recognize is that pharmacies are meant to be places that advance the health and wellness of people," she said. "These companies need to stay in their lane. They don't need to become abortion businesses."
