CaliforniaThe US governor has vowed not to do business with Walgreens after the nation’s second largest Retail pharmacies are prohibited from selling abortion pills in 20 states that ban the procedure and require medication.

Gavin Newson announced the decision on Twitter on Monday with the caption: “We’re done,” following the company’s decision last week.

The move comes after anti-abortion lawmakers pressured Walgreens to drop the drug mifepristone, which makes up half of the combination used to induce abortion.

“California will not do business with @walgreens or any company that panders to extremists and puts women’s lives at risk,” Newsom tweeted.

The move comes after Walgreens came under pressure from anti-abortion lawmakers to not carry the drug mifepristone, which makes up half of the combination used to induce abortion.

A spokesman for Newsom added that the state is reviewing its relationship with the retail pharmacy.

“We will not do business with companies that pander to right-wing bullies while promoting their extremist agenda, or companies that put politics before the health of women and girls,” said Brandon Richards. CNBC.

It’s unclear if California will close Walgreens statewide.

The move comes just a couple of months after the Biden administration renewed a regulation allowing mifepristone, which is part of a two-drug cocktail to induce miscarriage, for stocking and dispensing in pharmacies pregnant mothers by prescription.

GOP attorneys from those states sent letters to CVS, Rite Aid, Albertsons, Costco, Kroger and Walmart.

In response, Danielle Gray of the Walgreens Legal Group said: “As you know, in order to receive FDA certification, pharmacies participating in the program must meet a number of safety and risk reduction requirements in order to dispense this drug.

“At this time, we are working on a certification process that includes an assessment of our pharmacy network to determine where we will dispense mifepristone, as well as training protocols and updates for our pharmacists.”

The future of mifepristone is shaky at best. A February lawsuit filed by anti-abortion activists in Texas challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug twenty years ago.

The appointed judge for the case, Matthew Kaczmarik, is a staunch conservative and an appointee of Donald Trump. He is expected to side with the pro-lifers.

Siding with the plaintiffs would significantly disrupt access to abortion across the country. This would affect access to abortion even in states where there are no restrictions on the procedure.

It is likely that pro-choice supporters will appeal Kaczmarik’s decision.

In recent years, the FDA has loosened restrictions on abortion-inducing drugs.

Medical abortion has become a lifeline for women in blue and even red states after the Supreme Court struck down federal abortion guarantees

The combination of drugs Mifepristone and Misoprostol appeared in local pharmacies in early 2023.

Women can also be prescribed the pill via telemedicine and have it mailed to them by an out-of-state provider.

The U.S. Postal Service can legally deliver abortion pills to people in states where the procedure is banned or restricted, according to the Justice Department, saying federal law allows the pills to be sent through the mail because the sender can’t know for sure whether the recipient will use them. illegal.

Medical abortion has become the most common method of terminating a pregnancy.

In 2020, the two-drug method led to 54 percent of all abortions in the U.S., up from about 44 percent in 2019.

This is partly due to the rise of telemedicine and the general preference to stay away from doctors’ offices during a pandemic.

The legal landscape for abortion has been in near-constant change since the Supreme Court dealt a death blow to legal access to abortion in June 2022 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health.

Abortion rights advocates in blue states as well as states with abortion restrictions have been able to take solace in the fact that mifepristone, a drug that has been proven to be safer than carrying a pregnancy, will always be available with a doctor involved.

But the Texas lawsuit, in addition to mounting pressures like those from GOP attorneys here, is seriously jeopardizing access to the drug.

For many women, medication is the only way to terminate a pregnancy.