• A letter from Students for Life via pro-life activists nationwide will go to the TOP NINE Retail Pharmacies and be made available for people to share with their community businesses, urging Pharmacy business to DECLINE TO SIGN and refuse to Opt In to Chemical Abortion Pill Distribution 

• Activism Kits are available for events outside local pharmacy locations. Visit ThisIsChemicalAbortion/Action Center 

“As pharmacists nationwide consider or engage in a walk out because of working conditions, Students for Life calls on pharmacy stores and chains to respect worker conscience rights and to decline to Opt In to the deadly business of abortion,” said Students for Life of America’s Kristan Hawkins. “Problems for the industry do not need to include the legal and moral implications of ending life for profit. Intentional abortion should not be forced on stressed pharmacists already burdened by current conditions.” 

WASHINGTON D.C. (11-02-2023) – In light of the pharmacist burnout creating headlines nationwide as well as the legal and moral implications of intentionally causing an abortion, Students for Life of America (SFLA) is launching a HALT PHARMACY ABORTIONS campaign to encourage national pharmacy chains as well as local pharmacies to stay out of the business of intentional abortion death. Current FDA health and safety standards require that those intending to sell Chemical Abortion Pills Opt In to Chemical Abortion Pill trafficking. Central to this push is a letter being sent to the top nine Pharmacy noting the many reasons – including legal risks – to avoid entering the death for profit model usually associated with Planned Parenthood and Aid Access, an international drug distributor pledging illegal activity in states where Chemical Abortion Pill use is limited for public safety. The American Pharmacists Association, standing in support of local pharmacists, noted that “the pharmacist–patient relationship is not transactional. It is a special covenant.”  

“Our communities need healthcare workers, like dedicated pharmacists, empowered to act on their special covenant to do no harm. Forcing Chemical Abortion Pills into neighborhoods across the country is a violation of a sacred trust and also involves potential violations of federal law,” said Hawkins.  

SFLA and activists nationwide will be warning pharmacists of dire consequences for women, the preborn, and their business if they add to the strain on local pharmacists with the death for profit model. The letter will be sent to the CEOs of: CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Kroger, Rite Aid, Albertsons, Publix, Costco, and Safeway.  

To learn more about what the pharmacy giants are saying about plans to distribute Chemical Abortion Pills read:What We Know About the Top Nine Retail Pharmacies’ Decisions on Selling Chemical Abortion Pills  

The letter reads in part: 

The reckless effort to coerce medical professionals into the business of abortion, especially regarding the distribution of Chemical Abortion Pills for profit, is headed to neighborhood pharmacies like yours. Corporate abortion advocates have used the FDA to reduce health and safety standards (REMS – Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy) for the distribution of the two-pill combination that in the United States is used to end preborn life in the womb. But the risks they are willing to accept to further their business interests could result in injuries to patients that you – as a pharmacist, pharmacy business owner, or corporate executive – could be held accountable for, with business ending, license-revoking results, along with felony prosecution. 

Pharmacists, Pharmacy Business Owners, and Pharmacy chains are right now under enormous pressure to get into the business of abortion, something they must Opt-In as part of the REMS. We urge you to avoid the many complications of Chemical Abortion Pills and choose not to Opt-In, preserving your business as a life-saving enterprise working to support all those, born and preborn, who receive your care and attention. 

… To be clear, this letter should serve as notice of possible felony offenses if abortion-causing drugs are being ordered, received, and mailed. This is another reason to decline to sign, to refuse to Opt-In to a business model that has so many dangers associated with it – for women, for the preborn, and for those who facilitate that end of life. 

TO READ THE ENTIRE LETTER, CLICK HERE. 

Across the country over the next month, SFLA teams, students, and volunteers will hold peaceful protests outside of pharmacy locations, urging them to decline to sign, to choose not to Opt In to the sale and distribution of Chemical Abortion Pills. An activism kit is also available, including access to the letter, to allow for community opposition to the proposed expansion of Chemical Abortion Pill marketing.  

Currently, ADF is leading legal action regarding the approval process of Chemical Abortion Pills, noting the reckless way the pills were pushed forward without proper testing of their impact on young girls. SFLA has an amicus brief in the case, noting the problems with the pills include failing to safeguard the environment from government sanctioned, corporate dumping of chemically tainted placenta tissue, blood, and human remains into America’s waterways.  

As noted: Students for Life of America & Students for Life Action has led a series of campaigns over recent years, as Chemical Abortion Pills became the number one cause of intentional abortion death in America and around the world. Four citizen petitions have been filed with the FDA regarding their negligent oversight of pills that kill.  

CLICK HERE to read all of SFLA’s Citizen Petitions calling for:   

• Adding Red Bag Medical Waste requirements to reduce the pollution from Chemical Abortion Pills;  
• Restoring high health and safety standards (known as REMS – Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies) to protect women’s lives;  
• Completing studies and ensuring protections for endangered species; and now,  
• Requiring Protections for Water, especially recreational water, in compliance with the Clean Water Act.  

CLICK HERE to read Hawkins’ Newsweek op-ed, along with two state legislators, titled Stop Dumping Medical Waste, detailing some legislative solutions underway. 

As previously reported in SFLA news of a petition looking at the potential harms to endangered species: Corporate Counsel Zac Kester noted that the potential environmental problems are ongoing. First, the FDA slapped a cover memo accepting the 1996 Environmental Assessment submitted by the Population Council, which would profit from the drugs, without further research. They accepted the general opinion that the littering of the package was the main environmental concern. But with each change in the health and safety standards, that error was compounded, meaning that the FDA failed FIVE TIMES to examine the risks to the environment in 2000, 2016, 2019, 2021, and 2023. 

“Each time the FDA removed or altered the 2000 health and safety standards, they permitted the polluting of the environment,” said Kester. “Officials should have made sure that those changes did not harm aquatic, animal, and plant life – our food supply.  

It’s important to note that the tainted blood, tissue, and human remains from a deliberately caused Chemical Abortion is vastly different from a spontaneous abortion, in the following ways: 

1. Dangerous Chemical Abortion Pills do not taint the remains of spontaneous miscarriages, which are also not planned events. 
2. Responsibility for protecting the environment from a business practice is with the person/business who began a chain of events leading to potential harms. The Chemical Abortion sales team and corporations, as the generators of medical waste, are responsible to clean it up.  
3. A Chemical Abortion Sales Team knows that they are starting a chain of events likely to ending with tainted tissue and blood and human remains in the wastewater system, and therefore are responsible to ensure protection of the environment.  

As SFLA previously reported in earlier coverage of this case: Ironically, while the deadly pill pushers say they are advocating for women, SFLA’s YouGov poll indicates that Gen Z and Gen Y absolutely reject the policies of Biden’s FDA, which put them at risk.  

TOP FINDINGS REPORTED FOR THE YOUGOV POLL BY THE DEMETREE INSTITUTE FOR PRO-LIFE ADVANCEMENT: 

The Generation asked to buy Chemical Abortion Pills doesn’t buy the Biden Team’s willingness to risk their lives and future fertility, with 9 in 10 consistently expressing concern with the current No Test, Online Distribution of Chemical Abortion Pills.   

• Support for an Ultrasound Screening to Protect Women facing ectopic or late-term pregnancies: 91% agree this is somewhat to extremely important, with 40% choosing extremely important. (Chemical Abortion Pills don’t work well later in pregnancy or end an ectopic pregnancy, once established outside the womb. An ultrasound is used to determine location and length of pregnancy to save women’s lives, something Biden’s FDA no longer requires.)  
• Support for Blood Test Screening to preserve a woman’s fertility: 93% agree this is somewhat to extremely important, with 41% choosing extremely important. (In the U.S., 15% of the population has Rh-negative blood. In an exchange of blood during birth, abortion, or miscarriage with a preborn baby, antibodies can form in a woman’s body that unless quickly neutralized can essentially sterilize her, as future pregnancies are attacked. The treatment is a shot called Rhogam that Biden’s FDA does not require to be administered, nor do they even require a blood test, giving women information they need to seek help.)  
• Support for requiring In-Person Care to prevent abusers from getting the drugs to use against women without their knowledge or consent: 60% supported with 40% opposing. (Chemical Abortion Pills are abusers’ dream drugs, giving them the power to end a mother’s pregnancy without her knowledge or consent. In-person dispensing ensures that women are not being coerced and that they have information on things like blood type.)   

Not only do Chemical Abortion Pills place women at risk of injury, infertility, death, and abusers, NIH-published studies such as this one indicate they pose a risk to the environment as well. 

More information on the broader project can be found here, but short-term plans are underway, including:   

STEP ONE: Students for Life of America & Students for Life Action have been leading the call for an Environmental Assessment of the impact of Chemical Abortion Pills along with tainted blood, tissue, and human remains in America’s wastewater system. This resonates with environmentally conscious Gen Z & Gen Y voters. Fewer than 1 in 10 wanted to ignore the potential dangers, with 92% agreeing that this is somewhat to extremely important, with 30% choosing extremely important.  

STEP TWO: To prevent environmental contamination of America’s water, corporations and medical businesses – from hospitals to surgical abortion vendor locations – are required to handle medical waste carefully. Red Bag Medical Waste regulations require contaminated and dangerous materials be disposed of according to state laws. The youth vote was fully in favor of requiring Red Bag Medical Waste procedures to Chemical Abortion Pill regulations, with 90% agreeing this is somewhat to extremely important, with 30% choosing extremely important.  

HISTORIC LEGISLATION MOVING FORWARD: Students for Life Action is already getting traction on our calls for protecting the environment from Chemical Abortion Pill-tainted blood, tissue, and human remains. West Virginia is the first state in the nation to file a bill calling for Red Bag Medical Waste requirements, and as Politico reports, “The next abortion fight could be over wastewater regulation.” 

ELECTED OFFICIALS TAKE NOTE: From the 2022 poll —  “Standing strong against reckless No Test, Online Chemical Abortion Pill sales and distribution is a winning issue. Almost 7 in 10 Millennials and Gen Z are more likely to support a candidate who supports laws that require in-person medical care and testing before and after the sale of dangerous Chemical Abortion Pills.” 

AND ONE MORE IMPORTANT RESOURCE TO NOTE: Individual medical professionals, pharmacists among them, who find their conscience rights violated by their forced participation with intentional abortion can get help. Recently, “The Ethics and Public Policy Center has partnered with the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Christ Medicus Foundation, and the Religious Freedom Institute to provide a new resource for health care professionals to secure their conscience and religious freedom rights under federal law.” Learn more here, and if interested in filing a complaint for violations of conscience rights, visit here.  

For interviews, contact Kristi Hamrick at [email protected] 

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Students for Life Action (SFLAction), a 501c4, along with its 501c3 sister organization, Students for Life of America (SFLA), make up the nation’s largest, pro-life youth organization, managing a political and policy operation engaging Americans of all ages but with a special emphasis on the largest segment of voters — the Youth Vote. Together they provide political, legal, educational, and community support for women and children, born and preborn. Headquartered in Fredericksburg, VA, SFLA serves more than 1,400 groups on middle, high school, college, medical, and law school campuses in all 50 states. SFLA and SFLAction have more conversations with this generation targeted by the abortion lobby than any other pro-life operation in the world, each week reaching more than 4 million across social media platforms and averaging 1.3 million video views. SFLA has also launched multiple initiatives to lead and serve the future of the pro-life movement including the Campaign for Abortion Free Cities, Standing With You, and the Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement . Over more than 17 years, President Kristan Hawkins has grown SFLAction/SFLA and the Pro-Life Generation into a nearly $20M organization, now preparing for an abortion-free America.