California will not renew $54 million contract Walgreens On the drugstore chain’s decision not to sell the abortion pill mifepristone in some states due to legal restrictions.
“California will not stand by as corporations cave in to extremists and cut off critical access to reproductive care and freedom,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement Wednesday, “California is on track to become the fourth largest economy in the world and we will leverage our market power to protect the right to choose.”
Newsom said on Monday that the state “did” doing business with Walgreens. California used the contract to purchase specific prescription drugs for the prison system. The state is reviewing all of its business contracts with Walgreens.
Walgreens said in a statement Thursday that it was “deeply disappointed” by the California decision, which the company accused of “false and misleading information.”
“Walgreens is facing the same circumstances as all retail pharmacies, and no other retail pharmacies have said they will approach this situation differently, so it is unclear where this contract will now be taken,” the company said. spokesman Fraser Angerman said.
“Our position has always been that, once we are certified by the FDA, Walgreens plans to distribute mifepristone in any jurisdiction where it is legally permitted to do so, including the state of California. , ” said Engerman.
Republican attorneys general in 21 states warned Walgreens in February that selling or distributing the abortion pill in their states would violate local laws.
The drugstore chain told them that it would not sell or mail mifepristone in their states.
In January the Food and Drug Administration allowed retail pharmacies such as Walgreens to sell mifepristone as long as they are certified under an agency program that monitors how the pill is used and dispensed. Walgreens and CVS have said they plan to become certified under that program.
At least 12 states have banned abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Several other states have banned abortion. there are strict restrictions on mifepristone than the FDA.
Walgreens is also not selling the abortion pill in states like Alaska, Kansas and Montana, where abortion is protected as a right under the states’ constitutions.
Patients in Alaska are required to obtain a prescription from a doctor. In Kansas, the state required patients to obtain the abortion pill in person from a physician, but a state court blocked that law in November. Montana’s requirement that patients see a doctor to receive mifepristone has been temporarily blocked by a court.
The drugstore chain also won’t sell mifepristone in Iowa, where last year the state’s Supreme Court overturned the state’s constitutional protections for abortion.
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