The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under President Donald Trump has formally rescinded a Biden-era rule that required pharmacies to dispense abortion drugs, ending a policy critics said coerced religious and pro-life pharmacists into violating their beliefs.
The now-scrapped rule originated in 2022, when the Biden administration sent guidance to roughly 60,000 retail pharmacies instructing them to provide abortion pills as a condition of participating in federally funded programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. The directive was issued in response to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision, which overturned the federal right to abortion and returned abortion policy to the states.
Pro-life and religious liberty advocates quickly challenged the mandate, arguing it forced pharmacists to participate in abortions against their convictions. In 2023, a federal court ruled in favor of religious pharmacies opposing the policy, prompting the Biden administration to revise its guidance. Critics, however, said the revised policy still left pharmacies vulnerable to enforcement actions and federal pressure.
This week, Trump’s HHS moved to eliminate the policy entirely. In a notice published by the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the Federal Register, the department said the Biden administration’s updated guidance “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.”
The rescission, HHS said, reflects a broader policy shift to “end the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortions,” aligning with executive orders signed by President Trump enforcing the Hyde Amendment and tightening controls on federal spending.
Matt Bowman, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), praised the decision. ADF represented pro-life pharmacies in State of Texas and Mayo Pharmacy v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a lawsuit challenging the Biden mandate.
“Even after the court ruling, the Biden administration’s revised guidance still subjected pro-life pharmacies across the country to a looming threat from federal bureaucrats,” Bowman said. “We’re grateful the current administration has eliminated the remnants of this abortion mandate entirely. This decision protects pharmacies that are fully within their rights to decline to stock or dispense abortion drugs.”
As part of its rollback of Biden-Harris policies, Trump’s HHS also abandoned the administration’s use of the term “pregnant person,” stating plainly that “only women and girls can be pregnant.”
The policy change comes as the Food and Drug Administration has asked a federal court to pause a Louisiana lawsuit seeking to restrict mail-order abortion drugs. According to reporting, the administration requested the delay while it completes a safety review of abortion pills — a review long demanded by pro-life leaders and Republican lawmakers.
Those lawmakers have urged the Trump administration not only to undo the Biden administration’s expansion of mail-order abortion drugs, but also to fully examine their safety and regulatory approval process. With the pharmacy mandate now repealed, pro-life advocates say the administration has taken a significant step toward restoring conscience protections and limiting federal involvement in abortion.
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