Walgreens won't sell abortion pills in 20 Republican-led states - even where it ... trends now
The nation’s second-largest retail pharmacy will not sell the abortion-inducing medication mifepristone even in states where abortion is still legal.
The major chain is walking on eggshells amid growing pressure from anti-abortion policy makers and activists to not carry the drug, which, in combination with misoprostal, can safely and effectively end a pregnancy within the first 10 weeks.
Walgreens responded to a letter sent last month by nearly two dozen Republican state attorneys general threatening legal action against the company if it stocked the medications. In response, Walgreens said it would not dispense abortion pills either by mail or at brick-and-mortar stores in those states.
But some of the states that will be affected have not made abortion illegal. Walgreens pharmacies in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas and Montana ― states where abortion pills are currently legal ― will not stock them.
The Walgreens news comes just a couple of months after the Biden Administration updated a regulation to allow mifepristone, part of a two-drug cocktail to induce miscarriage, to be stocked and dispensed at pharmacies to pregnant people with a prescription.
Medication-induced abortion has been a lifeline for women in blue states and even red states since the Supreme Court eliminated the federal guarantee to an abortion. A lawsuit in Texas imperils legal access though, as anti-abortion activists seek to reverse FDA approval of the drug
In a response to Kris Kobach, Attorney General of Kansas, Danielle C. Gray on Walgreens’ legal team said: ‘As you know, to become certified by the FDA, participating pharmacies must satisfy a range of safety and risk mitigation requirements to dispense this drug.
‘At this time, we are working through the certification process, which includes the evaluation of our pharmacy network to determine where we will dispense Mifepristone and training protocols and updates for our pharmacists.’
GOP attorneys also sent letters to CVS, Rite Aid, Albertsons, Costco,
