Major pharmacies, including Walgreens and CVS, are at the center of a heated battle over abortion pills in the US. the last salvo comes of 14 Democratic governors asking pharmacies to clarify their plans to dispense mifepristone, one of two drugs used for medical abortion.
“We write in light of recent media reports indicating that some major retail pharmacy companies, faced with political pressure, may be considering not dispensing critical abortion medications to millions of people, even in states where abortion with medications, such as mifepristone, can be legally dispensed. the governors wrote in a letter published Tuesday morning.
The letter, addressed to seven major US pharmacies, is signed by a list of governors, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper , and Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers. It was written by the Reproductive Freedom Alliance, a nonpartisan coalition of 21 governors committed to protecting reproductive rights in their states.
“As companies that dispense critical, life-saving medicines, we urge that your decisions continue to be guided by well-established scientific and medical evidence and a commitment to the health and well-being of patients, not politics or threats of litigation.” He said the letter says. “The impact on people’s health and lives is too great to do otherwise.” (Scroll down to read the letter in its entirety.)
Walgreens and CVS Announced in January that they would seek certification from the US Food and Drug Administration to begin providing medical abortions, in the form of the combination of the two drugs mifepristone and misoprostol. Weeks later, however, Walgreens backed down on its promise to seek certification, after Republican attorneys general from 20 states sent a letter to the pharmacy threatening to sue if Walgreens tried to ship abortion pills in their jurisdictions.
Since then, Democrats and reproductive rights advocates across the country have been up in arms as Walgreens bowed to political pressure.
CVS, the largest US drugstore chain, has not commented on whether it will follow through on its promise to seek FDA approval to begin dispensing mifepristone. Neither Walgreens nor CVS sold abortion pills prior to this controversy; they are simply in the process of becoming certified to do so.
Medical abortion is the most common way to terminate a pregnancy in the US, accounting for more than 60% of abortion and miscarriage services in the country. Years of research have shown that medical abortion is extremely safe and effective. When used together, mifepristone and misoprostol are more than 95% effective and safer than Tylenol. The FDA currently approves its use up to 10 weeks of pregnancy, and the World Health Organization says Mifepristone can be used safely up to 12 weeks.
The Supreme Court struck down federal protections against abortion last year, and more than a dozen states now have near-total abortion bans on the books. Barriers to in-person abortion care in many southern and midwestern states have made access to medical abortion even more critical, as in many states pills can be mailed via telehealth and taken at home.
Walgreens and CVS are among several parties involved in the right wing war on abortion pills. Walgreens may have acceded to political pressure in part because of a lawsuit filed in november by a conservative Christian legal group in a federal district court in Texas. The group, Alliance Defending Freedom, claims the FDA accelerated approval of mifepristone when the department put it on the market in 2000.
Although legal experts say the lawsuit’s arguments are weak, citing the more than 20 years that mifepristone has been used widely and safely by millions of Americans; the lawsuit has force because of the place where it was filed. The conservative group intentionally filed it in Amarillo, Texas, because the district only has one judge: Matthew Kacsmaryk, a far-right Trump appointee with a long history to oppose the right to abortion. The next hearing in the lawsuit against the FDA is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Read the letter from 14 Democratic governors below.
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