The White House on Friday denounced elected officials for pressuring pharmacies not to distribute abortion pills, following a decision by Walgreens not to sell them in several states where they remain legal.
“The fact that elected officials are targeting pharmacies and their ability to provide women with access to safe, effective and community-approved medicines [l’agence du médicament] is dangerous and simply unacceptable,” said US executive spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre during a press briefing.
She was referring to a letter co-signed by the attorneys general of twenty states sent on 1er February to Walgreens and CVS and warning the groups of possible legal action if they distributed mifepristone, one of the two pills used for medical termination of pregnancy, by mail.
Walgreens, one of the country’s largest drugstore chains, confirmed to AFP that they responded to the attorneys general by saying they “have no intention of distributing mifepristone in their respective states”.
The battle over this drug ignited after the US Supreme Court’s decision to blast abortion rights last June.
Fifteen states have since banned voluntary terminations of pregnancy on their soil and abortion pills are illegal there.
Abortion remains legal in several states where Walgreens plans not to distribute the abortion pill, such as Montana, Iowa, Kansas or Alaska.
Wagreens stresses that it still intends to be certified in order to be able to distribute the abortion pill, as authorized by the American Medicines Agency (FDA) since January.
But once the necessary certification has been obtained, its pharmacies will sell the drug “only in jurisdictions where it is legal and operationally feasible”, added a spokesperson for the group without giving further details.
Prior to COVID-19, the pill could only be delivered in person at very specific locations, including abortion clinics.
With the pandemic, the FDA accepted that it could be sent by mail, including after a telemedicine consultation, and decided in January that any certified pharmacy could market it.