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The country’s second-largest pharmacy chain said it will not dispense abortion pills in several states — including some without current restrictions — after coming under pressure from state officials and anti-abortion advocates.
Supporters of abortion rights say the move by Walgreens isn’t a surprise, but it shows the complicated situation facing states, patients, pharmacies and pharmacists since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer.
The decision from Walgreens comes after 20 Republican state attorneys general in a letter last month warned of legal consequences if the company started distributing the drug.
A Walgreens spokesman said the company has responded to each attorney general who signed the letter, telling them the company will not dispense mifepristone — a medication used to end pregnancy — in its brick-and-mortar pharmacies and will not mail it to those states.
Among them were four states — Alaska, Iowa, Kansas and Montana — where medication abortion remains legal due to court challenges.
In Kansas, for example, voters said the right to an abortion is protected by the state constitution. A state law prohibited anyone except a physician from dispensing mifepristone, but it has since been blocked in court.
Abortion is also legal in Montana, and the state’s requirement for a patient to have an in-person visit with a physician before being prescribed mifepristone is being challenged.
