Walgreens has indicated it will not sell the dangerous abortion pill that kills babies and injures women in 20 states that protect babies from abortion. This comes after an alliance of 20 Republican Attorneys Geneal contacted the drug chain, along with competitor CVS, and threatened legal action if it violated their state laws either banning abortions or limiting sales of the abortion pill.
Walgreens responded to a letter led by the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins and co-signed by CatholicVote President Brian Burch. While Walgreens acknowledged it intended to seek certification to sell the abortion drug mifepristone, the retail pharmacy giant suggested it would stop short in states where pro-life laws forbid such sales.
The decision comes after recent reports that the abortion drug killed one woman in Canada.
According to an AP report, Walgreens spokesperson Fraser Engerman confirmed that the company sent a response to each of the attorneys general saying that it will not dispense mifepristone in their states.
He also said the company is not currently dispensing mifepristone, although it is working to become eligible through a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandated certification process. That process requires pharmacies to meet specific standards in shipping, tracking and confidentially storing drug prescribing records.
He said the company “will dispense only in those jurisdictions where it is legal to do so if we are certified.”
“There is currently complexity around this issue in Kansas and elsewhere,” said Fraser Engerman, Walgreens’ senior director of external relations.
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Republican AGs issued statements responding to the decision.
“In my letter to Walgreens, we made clear that Kansas will not hesitate to enforce the laws against mailing and dispensing abortion pills, including bringing a RICO action to enforce the federal law prohibiting the mailing of abortion pills,” Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach said in a statement. “Evidently, Walgreens understood that my office was serious about this. I’m grateful that Walgreens responded quickly and reasonably and intends to comply with the relevant laws.”
The AGs also wrote to CVS, Albertsons, Rite Aid, Costco, Walmart and Kroger demanding they not dispense the dangerous abortion pill in their states at their phamacies.
Students for Life spokesperson Kristi Hamrick applauded Walgreens’ decision.
“This response indicates that pro-life concerns are being heard and that corporations are not rushing to take over the abortion business but are proceeding cautiously,” she said.
In January, Walgreens, CVS and, later, RiteAid announced plans to begin selling abortion drugs that are used to kill unborn babies up to about 10 weeks of pregnancy.
Their decisions came after the Biden administration dropped safety regulations for the dangerous abortion drug mifepristone, which has been linked to the deaths of millions of babies and dozens of women. Previously, mifepristone only could be dispensed by FDA-approved abortion facilities, medical offices and hospitals under the direct supervision of a licensed physician.
Meanwhile, pro-life leaders have launched boycotts and protests against Walgreens and CVS all across the country. In February, 20 Republican state attorneys general also wrote to the companies, warning that selling abortion drugs through the mail is “unsafe and illegal” and the companies could face lawsuits.
The drug mifepristone, typically used with a second drug, misoprostol, now is used for more than half of all abortions in the U.S., killing nearly half a million unborn babies annually, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
The FDA has linked mifepristone to at least 28 women’s deaths and 4,000 serious complications between 2000 and 2018. However, under President Barack Obama, the FDA stopped requiring that non-fatal complications from mifepristone be reported. So the numbers almost certainly are much higher.
Right now, a federal judge is considering a lawsuit from four medical groups that challenges the FDA approval of mifepristone as an abortion drug. The medical organizations accused the agency of ignoring evidence of safety problems and failing to properly study the risks.
Studies indicate the risks are more common than what abortion activists often claim, with as many as one in 17 women requiring hospital treatment. A recent study by the Charlotte Lozier Institute found that the rate of abortion-related emergency room visits by women taking the abortion drug increased more than 500 percent between 2002 and 2015.
Another new study from the University of Toronto, “Short-Term Adverse Outcomes After Mifepristone–Misoprostol Versus Procedural Induced Abortion,” published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that one in ten women who took the abortion pill had to go to the emergency room, according to Pregnancy Help News.
