New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday called on the CEOs of major pharmaceutical chains to resist anti-abortion pressure and vowed to continue offering medication abortion drugs.
Walgreens, which runs Duane Reade in New York, said last week it would no longer fill prescriptions for mifepristone in 20 GOP-led states after state attorneys general warned the company not to.
Access to the abortion pill is seen as the next battle on the abortion rights front after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v Wade decision last summer, allowing some states to restrict the medical procedure. California quickly reacted to Walgreens’ withdrawal, with Governor Gavin Newsom cutting ties with the company and saying the $54 million contract would not be renewed.
Hochul and James urged pharmacies operating in New York not to give in to anti-abortion pressure.
“We urge you not to allow this tactic to intimidate you, and to make this critical medicine available as much as possible, based on a fair and just interpretation of state and federal law,” they said in a letter to the CEOs of Walgreens, RiteAid and CVS.
“Although access to this drug is under threat elsewhere for political reasons, we remind you that New York’s law is simple,” said Hochul and James. “Abortion is legal and protected as a fundamental right under state law, and there are no legal barriers to dispensing mifepristone in New York pharmacies.”
California’s governor on Wednesday attacked Walgreens after the company’s decision to stop selling abortion pills in 20 states.
“California will not stop being a den for extremists and removing critical access to care and reproductive freedom,” Newsom said in a statement. “California will be the fourth largest economy in the world and we will use market power to defend the right to vote.”
A Walgreens spokeswoman said the company was “deeply disappointed” by Newsom’s decision. The company clarified its position after the California controversy with a statement saying it would continue to distribute mifepristone “in any jurisdiction where it is legally permitted.”
New York does not currently have a contract with Walgreens, Politico reported.
Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration announced that Americans will be able to receive abortion pills at retail pharmacies — a move that increases access to medication abortions. The FDA says mifepristone is safe and can be used together with another drug, misoprostol, “to terminate a pregnancy past ten weeks’ gestation.”
Medication abortions account for more than half of all abortions in the US, according to the Guttmacher Institute.