Sam’s Club, a membership warehouse club which is a division of Walmart, Inc. is now dispensing 200-mg mifepristone (the abortion pill, brand name Mifeprex) in its pharmacy.
A recent search using a New York zip code on the Sam’s Club Pharmacy website revealed this tragic fact (see image below):
Sam’s Club Pharmacy carries the abortion pill, Mifepristone and Mifeprex
Will Walmart dispense the abortion pill?
As Sam’s Club is a division of Walmart, Inc., there is concern that Walmart itself will also dispense the deadly drugs. Live Action News previously detailed how Walmart announced its intention to “evaluate the requirements related to dispensing mifepristone in our pharmacies.” To date, however, there has been no officially published update on what Walmart intends to do regarding the abortion pill.
On August 6, 2024, Nick Infante, Walmart’s VP of State and Local Government Affairs, responded to demand letters from New York City Comptroller Brad Lander by thanking him for the letter he sent to Walmart CEO Doug McMillon “regarding certification to dispense mifepristone.
Infante wrote:
We strive to provide access to high quality health care to our patients everywhere we do business. As with any pharmacy decision, we carefully review the entire regulatory environment. We continue to evaluate the requirements related to dispensing mifepristone in our pharmacies.
Participation in a REMS program is not undertaken lightly, and we continue to access the increasingly complex, overlapping, and sometimes conflicting set of federal and state statutes and regulations that govern the provision of health care and the practice of pharmacy.
Walmart response to demand to dispense abortion pills
Sam’s Club website misleads on risk of birth defects
“Take mifepristone by mouth as directed by your doctor, usually as a single dose,” the Sam’s Club Pharmacy website states. “After taking mifepristone, your doctor should direct you to wait 24 to 48 hours before taking another medication (misoprostol) by mouth as a single dose. The medications may not work well if you take misoprostol sooner than 24 hours after taking mifepristone or later than 48 hours after taking mifepristone. Follow your doctor’s instructions carefully.”
The site adds:
Heavy vaginal bleeding does not mean that the pregnancy has ended.
Avoid eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice while using this medication unless your doctor or pharmacist says you may do so safely. Grapefruit can increase the chance of side effects with this medicine. Ask your doctor or pharmacist for more details.
It is important that you return for a follow-up visit within 7 to 14 days after taking mifepristone, even if you are not having any problems. If the pregnancy has not ended, or there are serious medical problems, surgery may be needed.
If the treatment fails and the pregnancy continues until birth, there is a risk of birth defects.
The Sam’s Club Pharmacy listing warns women that “This drug must be used only if you can easily reach adequate emergency medical services in case you have a serious medical problem. This drug may make you dizzy…. Mifepristone usually causes fetal death. In the unlikely event you have an ongoing pregnancy after treatment, birth defects may result….”
But as Live Action News previously detailed, a continuing pregnancy after taking abortion pills does not result in birth defects in any higher proportion than among the general public.
An extensive list of potential risks and side effects
Despite false claims that taking the abortion pill is “safer than Tylenol,” Sam’s Club warns women that “Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, or dizziness may occur.”
After listing numerous potential side effects, the website adds, “You must return for all of your follow-up visits with your doctor,” yet a woman does not even require an in-person visit with a doctor to obtain the abortion pills — and given the ‘no-test’ protocol, it is unlikely that any follow-up visits are scheduled even if the woman obtains the drugs from a local prescriber.
Sam’s Club also notes that ‘bleeding and spotting may last up to 30 days and may be much heavier than a normal period. In very few cases, this bleeding will need to be stopped by surgery.” But those “very few cases” actually aren’t so few; the FDA’s medication guide for the drug acknowledges that as many as seven percent (7%) of women who take mifepristone will need surgery after “to stop bleeding” or to complete the abortion. With Guttmacher’s latest numbers showing that 63% of the 1,037,000 abortions in 2023 were done by abortion pill, this means that as many as 45,000 women could require surgery after taking the abortion pill every year.
No, not so “few,” Sam’s Club.
The fairly standard prescription side effects reminder —”… this medication has been prescribed because your doctor has judged that the benefit to you is greater than the risk of side effect” — also seems particularly ironic, given that the intended purpose of this drug is to kill a preborn human being.
Photo of 10-week aborted baby: Reddit user brazen 177
The website adds that a woman should “[g]et medical help right away if you have… fever of 100.4 degrees F (38 degrees C) or higher, fainting, fast heartbeat, stomach/abdominal pain or tenderness,” all of which signal an infection, possibly sepsis — also a known risk of mifepristone. Sam’s Club Pharmacy acknowledges this, stating, “Rarely, serious medical problems can occur when a pregnancy ends, including sometimes fatal infections and bleeding.”
“Get medical help right away if you experience symptoms such as severe abdominal pain, fainting, fast heartbeat, fever lasting more than 4 hours,” the site reiterates. “You may have a very serious infection even if you do not have a fever. Get medical help right away if you have abdominal pain or feel sick (for example, if you have nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, weakness) more than 24 hours after taking the second drug (misoprostol), even if you do not have a fever. Also get medical help right away if you have continued heavy bleeding, which may be a sign the pregnancy has not ended or other serious medical problem. You may need surgery or other medical care. See also Side Effects section.”
The site also stresses, “Read the Medication Guide, read and sign the Patient Agreement, and consult your doctor if you have any questions…” (Again, note that the “doctor” the patient is consulting will probably be an emergency room physician instead of the authorized prescriber of the drug.) “Your doctor must give you clear instructions about who to call and what to do in case of an emergency (such as severe bleeding, infection). If you go to the emergency room or visit another health care professional, show them the Medication Guide so they know you are trying to end your pregnancy” (emphasis added).
This is particularly interesting, as the 2019 Mifeprex label used to urge women to take the medication guide with them when visiting an ER, but by 2023, that instruction had been removed from the label.
Abortion pill side effects on Sam’s Club Pharmacy website
The likelihood of visiting an emergency department
Live Action News has previously documented that mifepristone’s 2023 label still contains a black box warning for sepsis, bleeding, and other life-threatening risks.
In addition, published percentages for emergency room (ER) visits on the drug’s insert indicate that 2.9 to 4.6% of women who take abortion drugs end up in the emergency room, indicating that abortion pill-related ER visits could be in the tens of thousands every year. As noted, the FDA’s medication guide also acknowledges that as many as seven percent (7%) of women will need surgery after taking mifepristone “to stop bleeding” or to complete the abortion.
Mifepristone Jan 2023 label shows percentage of women taking abortion pill visit ER
The data also is similar to findings from a previously-documented Gynuity Health Projects (GHP) telabortion study, which found that six percent (6%) of participants (70 out of 1,157) faced complications from the abortion pill, resulting in ER or urgent care visits. Gynuity is a pro-abortion group which conducts clinical trials on the abortion pill with funding from organizations with deep historic ties to the American eugenics movement.
Sam’s Club misleads about follow-up care
Unfortunately, Sam’s Club Pharmacy appears to be under the illusion that prescribers of the abortion pill actually care about women’s health, falsely suggesting that a woman is required to have a follow-up visit after taking the deadly drug.
“You must visit the doctor’s office at least 2 times to complete your treatment and important examinations. This treatment is only given under direct medical supervision. Learn about who to call and what to do in case of an emergency,” the Sam’s Club website claims. “Your doctor may order an ultrasound to make sure your pregnancy is less than 10 weeks and is not outside the womb (ectopic).”
Sam’s Club needs to catch up, it seems.
The abortion pill is often prescribed in a virtual setting and rarely involving any labs, tests, ultrasounds, or follow-up visits. In fact, Big Abortion is now instructing abortion pill clients to report to the emergency room claiming they’re having a natural miscarriage if they experience any adverse events or complications from the pill. This has countless potential negative effects, as I detailed in an interview on the Pregnancy Help Podcast here.
There are no abortion pill prescribers that require women to come back for a follow-up visit — something that shockingly even seemed to concern Colorado late-term abortionist Warren Hern when he questioned the care women receive when they are sold abortion pills. Hern asked who is doing “follow-up exam[s]” and “tak[ing] care of… a complication.”
It’s not going to be the same person who prescribed the abortion pill, and even Hern knows it.
In fact, as was demonstrated in the unfortunate deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, clients can purchase abortion pills in one state or across the ocean, then take the drug in a separate location far away from the “medical professional” who prescribed the drug. If a client experiences serious complications like sepsis (listed on the black box warning of the drug’s label) or even dies, then not one person who profited from the abortion pill sale will be held to account for failing to follow up. Instead, Big Abortion’s media propagandists will attempt to blame these tragic deaths on pro-life laws rather than on the abandonment of women by Big Abortion itself.
The abortion pill was rapidly expanded despite increased risks to women
The abortion pill, then known as RU486, was approved in 2000 under the drug name mifepristone (brand name Mifeprex), administered in a 200-milligram dosage. It is manufactured under the direction of Danco Laboratories, with the generic version manufactured by GenBioPro. In 2011, the drug was placed under a safety system known as REMS, after serious adverse events — including multiple deaths — were reported. REMS allows the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to monitor these adverse events. But under the Obama FDA in 2016, requirements to report all abortion pill complications were removed. Going forward, only deaths were to be reported.
In 2020, the abortion industry rolled out its long-intended ‘no-test‘ abortion pill protocol, which removed important labs, testing, and blood work needed to accurately date a pregnancy and rule out deadly ectopic pregnancies before administering the abortion pill. Rapid expansion of the abortion pill continued in the ensuing years, even as the abortion industry disregarded FDA gestational limits and safety regulations and even encouraged women to lie to emergency room doctors if they experienced abortion pill complications.
In April of 2021, under the guise of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration FDA temporarily enabled abortion pill distribution and expanded the REMS to limited mail-order pharmacy distribution. By December of 2021, the Biden FDA had further weakened the REMS by eliminating the in-person dispensing requirement and enabling the abortion pill to be permanently shipped by mail.
In January 2023, the Biden FDA further gutted the REMS by announcing it would allow retail pharmacies like Sam’s Club Pharmacy to dispense the drug.
Sam’s Club forgot to mention the drug’s greatest harm
The most important fact that Sam’s Club left off its website is how abortion pills intentionally kill a living preborn child, sometimes even much later in gestation than the drug’s FDA-approved use.
Sam’s Club, currently led by President and CEO Chris Nicholas, took in $84.3 billion in their nearly 600 clubs across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2023. The company’s sales include multiple items for babies who are born.
Costco, a large competitor to Sam’s Club, has received encouragement from shareholders to refuse to dispense abortion drugs. Because of this, some pro-life organizations and leaders have encouraged pro-life people to switch their pharmacy dollars to companies that do not dispense abortion drugs.
Tell President Trump, RFK, Jr., Elon, and Vivek: Stop killing America’s future.
Defund Planned Parenthood NOW!
