(LifeSiteNews) — While membership-based wholesale chain Costco comes under fire for standing by its Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) activities, pro-lifers remain grateful that, so far, it has not given in to pro-abortion demands to offer abortion pills.
As previously covered by LifeSiteNews, in its notice for the upcoming annual shareholder meeting on January 23, the Costco board formally opposed a proposal by the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) to investigate and publish a report on the “risks” of the company’s current DEI policies, branded “People and Communities.” NCPPR said that DEI is “discriminatory” and exposes the company to potential lawsuits, but the board argues that DEI is still beneficial in a break from a host of companies that have dropped “woke” corporate policies over the past several months in response to public pressure.
At the same time, however, Costco appears to have been holding firm against pressure from the abortion lobby to begin offering abortion pills at its pharmacies. In August, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) spearheaded letters to numerous major retailers urging them not to sell chemical abortion drugs through their pharmacies. Among those pressuring Costco and others were New York Democratic Comptroller Brad Lander, who claimed that not doing so would “risk losing investor confidence.”
“Maximizing shareholder value requires Costco to avoid politicizing its services and to continue to do what it has always done best, provide excellent grocery and retail goods to families,” ADF wrote. “The ‘growing market opportunity’ of abortion drugs is legally and politically fraught, raises significant reputational issues, and reduces the company’s customer base, both literally and because it would drive away many existing customers.”
Costco never issued a public statement in either direction, but its apparent refusal to stock the pills (at least for the time being) won it the gratitude of pro-life groups such as Live Action, which circulated a video and petition thanking the company and urging pro-lifers to switch their pharmacies to Costco from CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid, which have entered the abortion pill business.
Sign our pledge and switch your pharmacy to Costco today!
🖊️ https://t.co/6Sjx27GhGL pic.twitter.com/4MjV4n1Q9d
— Live Action (@LiveAction) November 15, 2024
Abortion pills carry distinct risks to women who take them, especially when done so without medical oversight. A 2020 open letter from a coalition of pro-life groups to then-U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn noted that the FDA’s own adverse reporting system says the “abortion pill has resulted in over 4,000 reported adverse events since 2000, including 24 maternal deaths. Adverse events are notoriously underreported to the FDA, and as of 2016, the FDA only requires abortion pill manufacturers to report maternal deaths.”
Pro-lifers warn that with the Biden administration’s complete removal of requirements that abortion pills be taken in the presence of a medical professional, meaning without any medical supervision or medical support close by, those events are certain to increase, in addition to the killing of innocent babies. Expanding the distribution of abortion pills into pro-life states by letting them be ordered and dispensed by mail also makes abortion bans harder to enforce.
Despite that, however, and despite taking abortion pills without medical supervision increasing their risks, returning President Donald Trump says he will not enforce federal law prohibiting abortion pills from being dispensed by mail, continuing an unprecedented change first made by predecessor Joe Biden.
Two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and restored the elected branches of government’s ability to decide abortion policy through the democratic process, 13 states ban most abortions, with lesser restrictions and regulations on the books in numerous others.
Other Democrat strategies to reinforce abortion “access” include legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, placing abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors, and embedding abortion “rights” in state constitutions.