14. Department of Health and Human Services · Notable
Withdraw the OCR pharmacy abortion mandate guidance
Printed page 496 14. Department of Health and Human Services
“OCR should withdraw its pharmacy abortion mandate guidance. OCR should withdraw its “Obligations Under Federal Civil Rights Laws to Ensure Access to Comprehensive Reproductive Health Care Services” guidance for retail pharmacies, which purports to address nondiscrimination obligations of pharmacies under federal civil rights laws and in fact orders them to stock and dispense first-trimester abortion drugs.”
What has happened
- Done
OCR rescinded, effective on publication, "Guidance to Nation's Retail Pharmacies: Obligations under Federal Civil Rights Laws to Ensure Nondiscriminatory Access to Health Care at Pharmacies" (September 29, 2023), which was the revised version of the July 13, 2022 guidance the Quote names by its original title. The notice states that the guidance "requires pharmacies to stock and fill prescriptions for drugs such as methotrexate and misoprostol, even if the pharmacist objects due to their potential abortion-related uses", and rescinds it under Executive Orders 14182 and 14219. The named object is gone.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Full text read at govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-01-27/html/2026-01550.htm. The notice recites the Quote’s own title - “Obligations under Federal Civil Rights Laws to Ensure Access to Comprehensive Reproductive Health Care Services”, issued July 13, 2022 - and explains that the 2023 guidance was its revision, which is why the rescission of the 2023 document disposes of the 2022 one.
- The notice also recites the litigation history, Texas v. HHS, 681 F. Supp. 3d 665 (W.D. Tex. 2023) and 2024 WL 1493809 (W.D. Tex. Apr. 5, 2024).
- Action
- withdraw
- Object
- OCR retail pharmacy reproductive health care guidance
- ID
- 1400