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A year after the Supreme Court preserved abortion pill access, the fight over dispensing mifepristone is shifting from courtrooms to boardrooms as anti-abortion forces press pharmacy chains not to sell the drugs.

The big picture: Costco last week said it won't stock mifepristone at its more than 500 pharmacies. Conservative groups are pushing other pharmacies — including Walgreens and CVS, which offer the pills in states where abortion is legal — to follow suit.

• "We can effectuate real change by talking to these companies and engaging with them," said Michael Ross, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom's corporate engagement team. "Hopefully Costco will be a trendsetter."
• But those efforts are making retail pharmacies a new ground zero in the fight over abortion access. Costco got swift criticism from one of its home-state senators, Washington Democrat Patty Murray, for accommodating "far-right extremists" she said were whipsawing the availability of basic care.

Between the lines: Pharmacy chains were destined to be involved after the FDA in 2023 allowed retailers to apply for certification to dispense mifepristone, which is part of a two-step protocol used to medically end a pregnancy through 10 weeks.

• The drug, which FDA first approved in 2000, has traditionally been dispensed at doctors' offices, hospitals or health clinics. But as states across the country restrict abortion, mifepristone prescribing via telehealth has significantly increased.

State of play: Costco says it won't pursue approval to dispense mifepristone because demand for the drug is low. The company's understanding is that patients generally get the drug directly from their medical providers, it said in an email.

But the decision, which reportedly came after more than a year of deliberations, is one anti-abortion groups have been pushing for. It extends beyond Costco's membership, since nonmembers can fill prescriptions at its drug counters.

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There were "historically low" conflicts of interest on a key CDC vaccine advisory committee before Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ousted 17 of its members in June, claiming they were a "rubber stamp for industry," USC health researchers wrote in JAMA Network yesterday.

Why it matters: Kennedy has claimed the vast majority of outside experts on CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee have financial stakes in regulatory decisions, including receiving income from drugmakers.

What they found: Researchers from the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics analyzed 2000-2024 meetings of ACIP and VRBPAC, when they typically met three or four times a year.

• The average prevalence of conflicts for ACIP members over that span fell from 42.8% to 5%.
• The prevalence of reported conflicts for VRBPAC declined from 11.1% in 2000 to less than 4% since 2010. For a decade, there were no conflicts reported.

Of note: The most frequently reported conflict was research support. The prevalence of conflicts related to personal income such as consulting, stock, royalties or ownership was less than 1% for both committees since 2016, the researchers report.

• "HHS is ensuring radical transparency and restoring public trust — earlier this year we launched the ACIP Conflicts of Interest tool so the public can easily view historical conflicts," HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon wrote in an email. "Secretary Kennedy is committed to eliminating both real and perceived conflicts to strengthen confidence in public health decisions."

The Texas health department declared the state's measles outbreak over after no new cases were reported in 42 days.

Why it matters: The outbreak cost the state $10 million and rattled the Trump administration, which was was roundly criticized for a sluggish early response to one of the worst outbreaks in decades.

• The outbreak began in late January in Seminole and eventually spread to more than 10 Texas counties, the Texas Tribune writes.
• Public health professionals consider 42 days a benchmark, because that is double the disease's maximum incubation period, per the health department.

The outbreak shows just how easily the virus can burn through a community with low vaccination rates, said Phil Huang, director of the Dallas County health department.

• That community has far more natural immunity now, he said. "But at what cost? We're talking about 99 people hospitalized, two deaths, and countless other kids, I'm sure, that were ill ... but didn't require hospitalization."
• "That is not what you want to do, especially when you've got a vaccine that can prevent all of that," he said.

Go deeper: What to know about U.S. measles cases

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The Trump administration is undermining or has stopped collecting key nonpartisan data that kept the public informed about the state of the nation and its health.

Why it matters: From Congress to city halls to boardrooms, critical decisions rely on accurate government data and public trust in that data. Without it, leaders risk making costly mistakes that could affect millions of people.

Health data of all kinds is evaporating, either as a result of government orders to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion or due to staffing cuts, the Washington Post reports.

• The CDC is no longer collecting gender data on any programs, including violence prevention and mental health programs, the Post notes. The agency has also stopped collecting concussion data as well as analyzing data around drownings.
• The government has stopped federal collection of abortion data, numbers historically used to predict birth rates.
• The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has stopped updating its database on drug use trends, which could make it harder to track street drugs and overdoses.

The bottom line: While some states and private organizations are stepping in to fill gaps left by federal agencies, the loss of government numbers and the erosion of public trust in those numbers could have lasting consequences.

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