“California won’t be doing business with @walgreens — or any company that cowers to the extremists and puts women’s lives at risk,” said Newsom in a tweet Monday morning. “We’re done.”
A letter dated Feb. 1 from Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to the nation’s largest pharmacy-dispensing companies was co-signed by 19 other attorneys general warning that the sale of abortion pills would violate federal law and abortion laws in many states. Missouri is among the states that implemented strict abortion prohibitions last summer after the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
In addition to Missouri, the attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia signed the letter.
Walgreens last week announced it won’t sell abortion pills by mail to 20 conservative-led states. The statement came after attorney generals in the 20 states warned Walgreens and pharmacy chain CVS that they could face legal consequences if they sold abortion pills by mail to those states.
A spokesman for Walgreens confirmed to the Associated Press that the company sent a response to the AGs in each state, saying it would not dispense mifepristone in the states. Restrictions on abortion pills have been imposed in 19 U.S. states and there’s a court battle over whether they have the power to do so in defiance of U.S. Food and Drug Administration policy.
Gov. Newsom has vowed to make California a safe-haven for women seeking an abortion following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe vs. Wade last year.
