A group of 20 Republican state attorneys general sent a joint letter to Walgreens and CVS on Wednesday warning the major pharmacy chain to stop mailing and distributing pills used for medical abortions.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey led a coalition warning the company that it would violate federal and state law if it released the drug. The letter comes just a month after the Food and Drug Administration said abortion pills could be offered at retail pharmacies in the United States, a major change in policy by the Biden administration that could expand Americans’ access to the drug. The agency also recently dropped the requirement that the pills be collected in person, an expansion of telemedicine that allows people to get the drug through the mail.
The change drew criticism from Republicans.
“As Attorney General, it is my responsibility to enforce the law as it is written, and that includes enforcing the very laws that protect Missouri women and their unborn children,” Bailey said in a statement Wednesday. “My office is doing everything in its power to inform these companies about the law, promising to use all the tools at our disposal to uphold the law if they are violated.”
The attorney general pointed to a federal law called the Comstock Act that says it “expressly prohibits the use of mail to send or receive any drug that would be ‘used or intended to produce an abortion.'” The Justice Department, however, clarified in December that the act does not prohibit mailing or receipt of medical abortion pills, which laid the foundation to regulate the FDA.
Medication abortion uses two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, in combination or alone, which cause an abortion. The regimen was approved by the FDA in 2000 for use in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, and the regimen now accounts for about half of all abortions in the US.
President Joe Biden pledged to protect and expand access to the abortion pill after the Supreme Court’s decision last summer to overturn Roe v. Wade created abortion rights. The decision led to dozens of states banning or restricting abortion. Many countries have laws that prohibit citizens from accessing abortion drugs by mail, but patients in these countries can still try to get the pill through online consultations or doctors abroad.
Walgreens and CVS said the companies want to complete the certification process needed to sell the drug in states where it is legal. No company does that.
“We intend to become a certified pharmacy in the program, but we understand that we may not be able to offer mifepristone at all locations if we are certified in the program,” a Walgreens spokeswoman told Reuters this week.
The letter was joined 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. . .