by Stacy Jackson

March 7, 2023

California Governor Says Business With Walgreens Will Cease After Stores Pull Abortion Meds

California governor Gavin Newsom clarified the state will part ways with Walgreens after the pharmacy chain announced on Friday that locations in 20 states will no longer distribute abortion medication.

Newsom released a statement on Twitter March 6, addressing the company’s decision.

“California won’t be doing business with Walgreens—or any company that cowers to the extremists and puts women’s lives at risk,” Newsom tweeted. “We’re done.”

“We intend to be a certified pharmacy and will distribute Mifepristone only in those jurisdictions where it is legal and operationally feasible,” the company said in a statement, according to CNN.

Pharmacies across Republican-led states have been warned to cease distribution of abortion medication.

“If FDA approval of mifepristone is revoked, 64.5 million women of reproductive age in the U.S. would lose access to medication abortion care, an exponential increase in harm overnight,” NARAL Pro-Choice America said in a statement last month, referencing internal research.

Walgreens made its announcement to ban the distribution of mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in medicated abortion, following a letter from GOP attorneys general across the 20 states.

The changes come amid the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade.

BLACK ENTERPRISE recently reported that a court order handed down by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington district court during the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization court case possibly found a loophole that could give women their abortion rights back.

Kollar-Kotelly pointed out that the right to abortion may be protected under the Constitution’s 13th Amendment, the same amendment that abolished slavery.

“It is entirely possible that the Court might have held in Dobbs that some other provision of the Constitution provided a right to access reproductive services had that issue been raised,” Kollar-Kotelly wrote. “However, it was not raised.”

As for other pharmacy chains?

“Rite Aid is monitoring the latest federal, state, legal and regulatory developments regarding mifepristone dispensing and we will continue to evaluate the Company’s ability to dispense mifepristone in accordance with those developments,” Rite Aid spokesperson Catherine Carter told CNN in a statement.


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