Walgreens says it won’t sell abortion pills in 20 GOP-led states, even where it is still legal

One of the nation’s largest pharmacies said Friday it wouldn’t dispense abortion pills in some states, including several where medication abortion remains legal.

A group of 20 Republican attorneys general warned CVS and Walgreens in a letter last month that they could face legal consequences if they sell abortion pills by mail in their states.

The letter, from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, was cosigned by attorneys general in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.

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Walgreens responded to the letter by saying it will not dispense the abortion pill mifepristone in these states, Jim Cohn, a spokesperson for the company, confirmed to USA TODAY on Friday.

The list of states in the letter include some where abortion is legal both generally and regarding medication abortion. These states include Kansas, Alaska, Iowa and Montana, Planned Parenthood representatives confirmed to USA TODAY.

Cohn said Walgreens is not currently dispensing mifepristone and instead intends to go through the certification process to be able to distribute the drug “in those jurisdictions where it is legal and operationally feasible.”

Earlier this year, the FDA ruled retail pharmacies could get certified to dispense mifepristone and agree to accept prescriptions from certified providers if they meet standards in shipping, tracking and confidentially storing drug-prescribing records

Pharmacies, including CVS and Walgreens, quickly responded by saying they intend to undergo the certification process to provide the drug in states where it is legal to do so.

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CVS has not responded to multiple USA TODAY requests for comment about their plans to dispense mifepristone in the 20 states included in the letter.

Melissa Fowler, chief program officer at the National Abortion Federation, the professional association of abortion providers, voiced concerns over pharmacies not providing mifepristone in states where the abortion pills are legal.

“When corporations give in to anti-abortion demands, patients are the ones who lose,” she said in a statement. “Too many patients have already lost access to essential health care due to state abortion bans and we should not allow abortion opponents to continue playing games with people’s lives and denying them the care they need—especially in states where abortion remains legal. Every patient deserves to obtain abortion care in the time and place that’s right for them.”

Meanwhile, abortion rights advocates are awaiting a decision by a federal judge in Texas that could decimate medication abortion access nationwide as anti-abortion groups target the decades-long government approval of a key abortion drug. Medication abortion is the most common method for ending a pregnancy in the U.S.