Attendees at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week will be able to get free abortion pills courtesy of Planned Parenthood. The group says the handouts highlight the importance of protecting abortion — but they also show how Democrats cozy up to Big Pharma.
Abortion pills like mifepristone — which Planned Parenthood Great Rivers is providing outside the DNC – could earn Big Pharma hundreds of millions of dollars each year. By establishing a medication abortion outpost at the DNC, where abortion is expected to be a major topic of discussion, Planned Parenthood is reinforcing the connections between pro-abortion groups, Big Pharma, and the Democratic Party.
It’s not the first time in recent history that Democrats have sided with Big Pharma. Once Joe Biden became president, Democrats began demanding and implementing COVID-19 vaccine mandates, which helped Big Pharma companies Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna, and Sinovac see $90 billion in profits, according to the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations. Pfizer alone brought in $35 billion in net profits, according to the organization.
The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute reports that medication abortions account for 63 percent of the 1,037,000 abortions performed in the United States in 2023. That’s 653,310 abortions. And while the cost of medication abortion varies, Planned Parenthood says on its website that it charges $580 on average.
So, if Planned Parenthood had performed all the medication abortions in 2023, the total revenue would have amounted to over $378 million.
That’s a lot of money for Big Pharma. And it’s largely thanks to Planned Parenthood.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) pegs the cost of mifepristone and misoprostol — another drug used for medication abortions — at around $300.
But even that is way more than the actual cost of these drugs. Healthline says mifepristone retails for $80. but if the pills are prescribed “off-label,” they can cost under $20, with misoprostol costing around $5 for a single dose. When the state of Washington purchased 30,000 doses of mifepristone in 2023, it cost taxpayers $1.28 million, according to USA Today. That means the state paid about $42.66 per dose.
At that rate, drug companies would have brought in $27,870,204.60 in revenue thanks to the medical abortion drugs.
And this is all despite laws limiting abortion and the sale of drugs like mifepristone.
Many Republican-led states placed limits on abortions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Bans or restrictions are currently in effect in 21 states, resulting in about 32,000 more babies being born per year.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have a long history of supporting abortion without any restrictions. While in the Senate, Harris co-sponsored legislation that would have banned even simple state-level restrictions like making sure an abortionist has admitting privileges to a nearby hospital, The New York Times reported.
Walz has bragged that he was so pro-abortion that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked him to “tone it down.” He even apologized after voting for a bill that would have protected babies who survive botched abortions, saying he had accidentally voted for the bill.
“Accidentally voted for HR4712 today,” he said. “It was an honest mistake. I meant to vote NO, as I did on an identical bill last Congress. My apologies for the confusion. I’ll keep fighting for women’s access to health care.”
A Harris-Walz administration would certainly make it easier for women to get medication abortion, potentially giving Big Pharma even bigger profits.
Planned Parenthood Great Rivers said its services will be provided “on a sliding-fee scale.” But most people will likely choose to pay nothing, the New York Post reports.
In addition to free abortion pills, Planned Parenthood Great Rivers is also providing free vasectomies outside the DNC. According to the sign-up sheet, all available appointments for the pills and vasectomies have been filled.
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