Walgreens, the second-largest retail pharmacy chain, has announced it won’t sell abortion pills In red states even where it’s legal, bending to pressure from Republican attorneys general. Will other chains follow?
Another big shoe has dropped in the struggle of the Biden administration and reproductive-rights advocates against Republican state officials and anti-abortion advocates. In the wake of an administration green light for retail sale of pills used to terminate pregnancies, Walgreens, the second-largest retail pharmacy chain in the country, has bent to pressure from 21 Republican attorneys general (20 signed a joint letter, with Kansas’s notorious Kris Kobach making his own threats separately) announcing it would not sell mifepristone or distribute it by mail in their states. What makes the step notable is that abortion and/or abortion pills are still legal in several of those states, as Politico reports:
The list includes several states where abortion in general, and the medications specifically, remain legal — including Alaska, Iowa, Kansas and Montana. For example, Kansas’ law that patients only obtain the pills directly from a physician is blocked in court.
“There is currently complexity around this issue in Kansas and elsewhere,” said Fraser Engerman, Walgreens’ senior director of external relations.
So Walgreens is basically saying it is not willing to assume any risk of legal peril in order to serve its red-state customers.
