Costco will not sell the abortion pill mifepristone at its pharmacy locations, the shopping club has said.

The wholesaler said its decision not to sell the prescription medication was based on a "lack of demand from our members and other patients."

"They generally have the drug dispensed by their medical providers," Costco said in a statement to CBS News.

Costco's position on the abortion pill, which was first reported by Bloomberg, was praised by a conservative religious coalition, called the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an anti-abortion advocacy group that had urged Costco not to sell mifepristone.

"We applaud Costco for doing the right thing by its shareholders and resisting activist calls to sell abortion drugs," ADF's legal counsel Michael Ross said in a statement Thursday. "Retailers like Costco keep their doors open by selling a lifetime of purchases to families, both large and small. They have nothing to gain and much to lose by becoming abortion dispensaries."

Mifepristone, first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000, is part of a two-step regimen with misoprostol used to end a pregnancy through 10 weeks. It is used in over half of all abortions in the U.S., according to research from the Guttmacher Institute.

Source