Costco Gives Misogynists a Win by Not Selling Abortion Medication

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Transcript:

You may have recently heard some news about Costco and the abortion medication mifepristone. Today I want to address some misinformation about that, AND some misinformation ABOUT the misinformation. It’s like mifepristone misinforception. That’s a word that exists now. Feel free to use it.

I’ll start with the actual correct news: Costco has announced that they will continue to not carry mifepristone in their pharmacies. They never carried it before and they will not be carrying it in the near future.

Next, let’s define some things for those outside the US or who just don’t know. Mifepristone is a medication that is used in 63% of abortions in the United States (obtained through the formal healthcare process). Decades of research have shown that it’s extremely safe–safer than drugs like Viagra or Tylenol. But unlike those drugs, mifepristone is essential healthcare for women, which allows them to avoid the extremely dangerous and life-altering condition known as “unintended pregnancy,” so the Religious Right has spent decades trying to keep it out of women’s hands. For many years it was only allowed to be dispensed by hand from the physician who prescribed it, but thanks to COVID, women were finally allowed to receive these extremely safe pills through the mail. And in 2023, the FDA finally agreed that pharmacies could stock the drug.

Costco is a members-only warehouse where you have to pay an annual fee to shop there, but which offers lower prices and larger quantities on a lot of products like toilet paper and eggs and this shapeless linen dress I’m wearing right now, which I got for $7 even though I only had to buy one and not, like, a crate of shapeless linen dresses. That’s right, I must declare this conflict of interest: I am a Costco member, and furthermore I own Costco. Literally. I love Costco so much that it’s the only individual stock I own.

That love was justified earlier this year when shareholders got to vote on whether or not the company should reconsider their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion because DEI is “weaponized language concealing a radical Marxist agenda” and that it “comes at the expense of merit by not hiring and promoting completely, irrespective of race and sex.” The Costco board of directors recommended we vote it down, and accordingly I, along with 98% of my fellow shareholders, told the white nationalist Republican bigots to fuck all the way off back to Sam’s Club with that shit.

But now my love is being tested. You see, Costco has special departments like an optometrist and a pharmacy, which can be accessed by anyone, even if they aren’t a member. Costco operates about 500 pharmacies, making them one of the top 15 pharmacies by revenue in the US. So it is newsworthy that unlike corporations like CVS and Walgreens, they’ve chosen to not stock mifepristone.

I saw this news make the rounds online mostly thanks to a bit of misinformation, as some outlets reported that the pharmacies would “stop” selling the medication, while crediting the move to anti-woman Religious Right groups lobbying Costco.

“This is not a massive decision or any kind of change,” read one post that hit my feed. “Costco has never carried mifepristone in its pharmacies. An anti-abortion group is taking credit for something that didn’t happen, possibly to generate disingenuous left-wing ire against one of the few corporations that hasn’t gone MAGA.”

So it is correct to state that Costco has never carried the drug, and so it is in a way LESS egregious for them to simply carry on doing what they already were doing as opposed to reversing a previous decision. However, I think it perpetuates misinformation to say that this is not a massive decision. It may be easier for Costco’s board to just keep doing a terrible thing, but it’s still a terrible thing. And deciding to keep doing the terrible thing IS a decision. A massive decision.

Because for a start, yeah, these are 500 pharmacies where women should expect to be able to access healthcare but cannot, possibly in an emergency situation. Not only do abortions go a lot more smoothly the earlier a person can get the medication, but mifepristone is often used to help manage miscarriages. By the age of 45, one in four women will have had an abortion AND one in four women will have suffered a miscarriage. One out of three pregnancies end in miscarriage. It is extremely common, and it can be extremely physically and mentally harmful. Mifepristone is an important tool a doctor has to protect their patients.

I actually have a related story that makes me extremely empathetic to people facing this problem. Many years ago, I was in a very small, rural area when my partner and I experienced a broken condom. At the time, I was not on any other birth control, so we went to the local pharmacy to get Plan B, which I confirmed was in stock on their website. When I arrived, the pharmacist refused to give it to me. No explanation, they just said “no.” And what other choice did I have in that situation? We jumped back in the car and drove to the next closest pharmacy about 30 minutes away, getting there just before they closed, where thankfully the pharmacist gave it to me with no drama, and the cashier smiled at me and told me “We’ve all been there. It’s going to be okay.” Which is, obviously, the point where I actually started crying.

There is absolutely no reason why that should have been any kind of stressful situation. All I needed was a 2-pack of pills that would prevent my fallopian tube from releasing an unfertilized egg. But the Religious Right spent decades vilifying this perfectly safe medication and lobbying for the “right” of pharmacists to refuse to do their jobs because it’s all part of their grand plan to control women’s bodies. This is what they do: they chip chip chip away at women’s rights and bodily autonomy wherever they can. They weren’t able to ban Plan B but they were able to make getting it a nightmare.

They’re currently working on banning mifepristone, but in the meanwhile Costco is helping them by making it just THAT much harder for women to get. And THAT is why they are celebrating. You can’t claim with no evidence that “An anti-abortion group is taking credit for something that didn’t happen.” The Christian conservative group Alliance for Defending Freedom spent the past year getting their members to lobby Costco, along with Walmart, Kroger, and other pharmacies, to not carry mifepristone, claiming they represented $56 million in Costco shares. And just like that, after a year of considering whether or not to begin stocking the drug, Costco announced that they were not going to do so. They claimed the reason was because of a lack of demand, but insiders suggested to the Washington Post that the anti-woman activists did influence the decision.

Costco has remained silent since their initial announcement, choosing to not even answer an MSNBC reporter who asked how they determined what medications are and are not in demand amongst their consumers. For instance, does the pharmacy make an official note whenever they get a prescription for a drug they don’t carry? Do they look at website searches? Or is this more of a vibes based thing? Like, “come on, nobody who wears that shapeless $7 dress is getting laid. No need for any abortions here!”

Regardless of whether or not the Christian conservatives impacted the decision, they THINK they did and so this has lit a fire under them: “It’s a very significant win and it’s one we hope to build on this coming year,” said Michael Ross, legal counsel for the corporate engagement team at ADF (told Bloomberg). Chip, chip, chip. Next up is probably Kroger or Walmart, who will be watching to see whether or not anyone is going to hold Costco accountable. And so I wanted to make this video to be sure that they see more than rightwing activists celebrating and leftwing activists saying it’s not a big deal. Hell no. It IS a big deal, and as a shareholder in the company I say fuck that anti-woman nonsense.

Hey buddies, post-production Rebecca, here! As you may know, patrons get videos early and ad-free, and during the patron-only time Mitchell Schoenbrun pointed out that I ended this video without a call to action: what can the average person do about this? So, I reached out to a friend of mine who specializes in responsible investing and who helps lobby corporations to do better. Here’s what she suggested: if you’re a member of Costco, every time you go in the store, go out of your way to talk to a manager and tell them you’re disappointed and concerned that they’ve bowed to anti-woman activists and refuse to stock mifepristone. 

If you hold shares in Costco, even if they’re in an ETF or mutual fund, write to Investor Relations, the CEO, and the board of directors who are literally there to represent you. You can find that info at investor.costco.com. Tell them the same thing: you care about women’s health and you want them to reverse course.

If you apply for a job at Costco or already work there, tell them how important this issue is to you.

And finally, my friend points out that Costco, like most public corporations, employs people specifically to pay attention to what’s happening on social media. So, Tweet, Skeet, Thread, post your disapproval so those people see it and flag it with (her words) “Oh shit.”

And feel free to include a link to this video! I know, that’s self-serving but seeing 20,000 views on it might elevate the flag to “holy fucking shit.”