Walgreens is proscribing gross sales of abortion treatment even in states the place the process is authorized.
California is ending its settlement with retail pharmacy Walgreens after studies revealed that the corporate has caved to strain from far proper politicians and restricted the sale of abortion treatment, even in states the place the drugs are authorized.
The state, led by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, is terminating a $54 million contract with the corporate that was set to be renewed in Might. “That is an try and name the query ‘Which facet are you on? Whose facet are you on?’” Newsom instructed Politico. “Are you going to simply cower within the face of bullies? Are you going to simply roll over?”
Newsom previewed the choice in a tweet on Monday, saying, “California received’t be doing enterprise with Walgreens — or any firm that cowers to the extremists and places girls’s lives in danger. We’re carried out.”
Beneath the cope with the state, Walgreens has offered treatment for people who find themselves imprisoned within the state’s expansive jail system. That contract will now be terminated, and the state must go elsewhere to discover a treatment supplier. It’s the first of a number of strikes that Newsom says the state is planning to take beneath its “exhaustive evaluate” of the state’s ties with the corporate.
Final week, Politico uncovered that Walgreens has determined to stop selling abortion pills in 21 states — together with 4 states the place abortion and abortion drugs are authorized — after a gaggle of Republican state attorneys basic threatened the corporate with authorized motion.
The choice was widely panned by abortion advocates and sparked boycotts. Advocates say that the transfer is illustrative of the best way that abortion bans can impression entry even in states the place the process is authorized, and of Republicans’ willingness to make use of their energy to impose their extremist anti-abortion views.
Walgreens has claimed that it is just doing what different retail pharmacies are doing, and that it’s planning to distribute the abortion drug mifepristone wherever it’s authorized to take action. Nonetheless, this assertion contradicts their letter despatched to assuage Republican lawmakers, which assured them that the corporate wouldn’t distribute mifepristone in states the place abortion medicine are at the moment authorized.
Newsom mentioned on Wednesday that the corporate’s refutation solely strengthened his resolve, and emphasised the state’s sturdy place on abortion.
“Sarcastically, we’re the scale of 21 states’ populations mixed,” Newsom mentioned to Politico. “And sure, when the mud settles, we’ll be the fourth largest financial system on this planet. So, we’ve got, we imagine, ethical authority, however we even have formal authority and can train it in partnership with the Legislature, and within the absence of that, by way of government motion.”
That is Newsom’s newest transfer in his quest to guard abortion rights. He’s at the moment main a coalition of 20 Democratic governors that launched final month known as the Reproductive Freedom Alliance. The group’s purpose is to share assets, legislative fashions and government actions to discover choices that lawmakers can take to guard abortion entry.
California has also positioned itself as an abortion sanctuary state as 13 states have banned most abortions, with a handful of different states issuing bans which were briefly or completely blocked by courts. Final yr, Newsom signed a slate of payments implementing abortion protections within the state, together with protections for sufferers who may journey to the state looking for the process.
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