Walgreens Backs Down After Kansas State AG Threatens Legal Action
Pharmacy giant Walgreens has backed down from a plan to dispense abortion pills in Kansas after the state’s Attorney General Kris Kobach sent a letter threatening to sue.
In early January, Walgreens became the first pharmacy to go along with President Joe Biden’s latest pro-abortion scheme — announcing that it would soon begin selling the lethal and dangerous chemical abortion drug mifepristone in stores and by mail.
Mifepristone is part of a two-drug medication abortion regimen that kills and expels an unborn child from their mother’s womb.
This decision was in response to new rules from Biden’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that would allow dangerous at-home abortions, which was part of an effort to work around pro-life laws passed in red states following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
In his letter to Walgreens executive Danielle Gray on February 6, Kobach blamed the “ends-justify-the-means” Biden administration for taking this dangerous action and objected to the abortion drugs being sold in his state.
“I have become aware of your company’s recently announced plan to provide abortifacients through its mail-order pharmacy business,” the attorney general wrote. “As the chief law enforcement officer in Kansas, I am writing to advise you that this plan is illegal, and Kansas will not hesitate to enforce the law.”
Kobach went on to note that Walgreens’ plan violates both federal law and state statutes — as Kansas’ statute requires abortion-inducing drugs to “be given to the patient by or in the same room and in the physical presence of the physician who prescribed, dispensed or otherwise provided the drug or prescription to the patient.”
While the Biden administration has implemented new rules to allow mifepristone to be sent through the mail, Title 18, Section 1461 of the United States Code states that “every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion” is considered “nonmailable matter” and thus cannot be sent via the mail.
“Ordinarily, the national government’s steadfast determination not to enforce the law would be the end of things. But §1461 is not a normal criminal statute because it can be enforced by an ordinary private-party lawsuit,” Kobach wrote, referring to the fact that private parties are authorized under Title 18, Section 1964 to sue entities that violate statutes including Section 1461.
Gray — who serves as executive vice president of Walgreens Boots Alliance, the company that owns Walgreens — responded to Kobach’s letter.
“Walgreens does not intend to dispense Mifepristone within your state and does not intend to ship Mifepristone into your state from any of our pharmacies,” she said. “If this approach changes, we will be sure to notify you.”
Kansas is not the only state that has warned Walgreens and other pharmacies about their plans to distribute mifepristone, as twenty other state attorneys general have made similar moves.
Despite Democrats’ continued championing of chemical abortions, studies show that these methods are not only lethal for the unborn baby but also extremely risky for the mother — especially considering the fact that they are now allowing them to be done at home without physician oversight.
According to a study published in Obstetrics and Gynecology, women who receive chemical abortions are four times more likely to experience complications compared to women who receive surgical abortions. Additional research indicates that abortion pills are associated with a 500% increase in abortion-related visits to the emergency room.
Considering the fact that chemical abortions already account for more than half of abortions in the U.S., the Biden administration’s new rules will inevitably increase that number — and likely increase the number of women who suffer from complications as well.
