ICYMI: Murray, Stabenow, Colleagues Press Walgreens, Put National Pharmacies on Notice to Ensure Mifepristone Access – More HERE
ICYMI: Senator Murray Statement on 147 Republicans in Congress Asking Supreme Court to Deny Patients Access to Mifepristone, Upend FDA’s Authority to Do Its Job – More HERE
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, issued the following statement in response to an announcement by Walgreens and CVS that mifepristone will be available with a prescription at pharmacy counters in select states, expanding to all states where legal in the coming weeks and months. Last year, Senator Murray led the push to pressure national pharmacies to provide the strongest possible access to mifepristone for patients and to communicate clearly about their plans and policies. Senator Murray’s letter to Walgreens is HERE and her letter to CVS is HERE.
“This is good news for women in my home state of Washington and in so many other states where abortion remains legal and protected. Mifepristone is absolutely essential to reproductive health care, but right now it is under threat by anti-choice extremists doing everything they can to pull it off the shelves nationwide. I’m glad Walgreens and CVS have heeded my call to provide the strongest possible access to this vital medication at a time of immense need—and I’ll be keeping a close eye to make sure that pharmacies everywhere, wherever mifepristone is legal, are fulfilling their obligations to patients and the law.
“Let’s not forget that a new Trump administration would do everything in its power to rip away access to mifepristone—meanwhile Democrats are fighting to make abortion legal and accessible everywhere in America.”
Senator Murray has led the fight in Congress to protect Americans’ reproductive rights and has fought to protect and expand patients’ ability to get medication abortion, as well. She pushed to expand access to mifepristone as COVID-19 first spread across the U.S. and blocked Republicans’ attempts to curb access to it in the middle of the pandemic. Senator Murray applauded FDA’s previous announcement that it would remove burdensome barriers to this medication and has long underscored that access to medications like mifepristone, which has a strong track record of safety and effectiveness, should be based on science, not politics. Most recently, Senator Murray led Congressional Democrats in filing an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to reverse a dangerous lower court ruling that would restrict access to mifepristone nationwide and upend the FDA approval process for all kinds of lifesaving medications.
Senator Murray has always fought to make reproductive health care more accessible and affordable for women everywhere–beating back countless Republican attempts to defund Planned Parenthood and other family planning services over the course of her career, and she is widely credited with successfully pushing the Bush administration to follow the science and make Plan B available over the counter.
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