California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) slammed Walgreens over its decision to stop selling abortion pills in Republican states with attorneys general who had warned that doing so could put the pharmacy in legal jeopardy.
“California won’t be doing business with Walgreens – or any company that cowers to the extremists and puts women’s lives in danger,” Newsom tweeted on Monday. “We’re done.”
Newsom’s tweet comes after Walgreens announced last week that it’s going to stop selling the abortion pill mifepristone within the 20 states where Republican attorneys general have outlined objections to the sale of the drug through the mail.
The attorneys general argued of their letter published in February that federal criminal law prohibits the usage of the mail to distribute abortion drugs, and noted that the law is enforceable through a non-public right of motion.
Additionally they raised questions on the Biden administration’s interpretation of the federal law in play, because the White House argued that the text of the law shouldn’t be “‘[t]aken literally’” despite acknowledging the language of the text.
The AGs wrote: “We reject the Biden administration’s bizarre interpretation, and we expect courts will as well. Courts don’t flippantly ignore the plain text of statutes. And the Supreme Court has been openly aversive to other attempts by the Biden administration to press antitextual arguments.”
The 20 states which have informed Walgreens of their intention to dam the sale of mifepristone by mail include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.
Mifepristone is a drug that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000 to cause an abortion or assist with a miscarriage as much as the tenth week of pregnancy when used together with misoprostol.
Mifepristone is used first to dilate the cervix and block a hormone needed to sustain a pregnancy, then misoprostol is taken a day or two later to cause contractions that vacant the uterus and end the pregnancy.
For over 20 years, the FDA only permitted mifepristone to be allotted by specialty offices and clinics as a consequence of safety concerns.
The agency has loosened those requirements and in 2021, eliminated an in-person requirement for obtaining the drug and permitted it to be prescribed via telehealth and shipped by mail-order pharmacies.
Those changes have seen the variety of medication abortions rise, as they accounted for 54% of all U.S. abortions in 2020, in accordance with the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights.
Earlier this 12 months, the FDA allowed pharmacies like Walgreens to start out allotting the drug after they undergo certification, which entails meeting standards for shipping, tracking, and confidentially storing prescription information.
In response to Newsom’s comments, a Walgreens spokesperson told FOX Business, “From the outset, we’ve made our intentions clear to develop into an authorized pharmacy to distribute mifepristone wherever legally possible to achieve this.”
Walgreens released an announcement Monday evening which said: “We wish to be very clear about what our position has at all times been: Walgreens plans to dispense Mifepristone in any jurisdiction where it’s legally permissible to achieve this. Once we’re certified by the FDA, we are going to dispense this medication consistent with federal and state laws. Providing legally approved medications to patients is what pharmacies do, and is rooted in our commitment to the communities by which we operate.”
A bunch against abortion called the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit in November searching for to revoke the FDA’s authorization of mifepristone.
ADF argues that the FDA’s testing of the drugs wasn’t as much as its full standards prior to its release onto the market over 20 years ago.
A ruling within the federal district court that has heard arguments within the ADF lawsuit against the FDA could come at any time.
It’s possible that the case might be appealed, leaving the timeline for a final resolution of the case uncertain.
