California’s governor tweeted out the state was “finished” with Walgreens due to its response to a menace from 20 Republican attorneys normal over abortion drugs.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
California Governor Gavin Newsom despatched a warning on Twitter to Walgreens yesterday after the pharmacy chain introduced that it will solely dispense a medicine used for abortion in some states the place it operates. Newsom tweeted, quote, “California will not be doing enterprise with Walgreens or any firm that cowers to the extremists and places ladies’s lives in danger.” NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin has been what which means for abortion entry and what’s behind this resolution from Walgreens. She’s right here to fill us in. Hey, Selena.
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: Hello, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, so let’s again up for a second. Are you able to simply clarify the function that pharmacies at the moment play in offering entry to the treatment we’re speaking about right here?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Proper. So we’re speaking about mifepristone. It is one in every of two drugs that is used to induce an abortion or to deal with a miscarriage. It blocks the hormone referred to as progesterone. And because the drug was authorised in 2000, there have been a lot of restrictions on who can present it, who can prescribe it, how sufferers can get it. They should, you realize, take it in a clinic in entrance of a clinician. These guidelines loosened a bit within the pandemic. And at this level, about half of all abortions within the nation are finished with drugs, so it is a large a part of this story. In January, the Meals and Drug Administration introduced that it will permit retail pharmacies to use to be licensed to dispense this treatment for the primary time. In order that’s a giant deal for entry. And for lots of OB-GYNs, like Dr. Daniel Grossman at UCSF, it is lengthy overdue.
DANIEL GROSSMAN: We now have an amazing quantity of proof, together with our personal analysis, exhibiting that pharmacists dishing out mifepristone is protected and efficient. And so, lastly, the coverage is beginning to catch as much as the science.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: After the FDA stated that they might, Walgreens and CVS each introduced that they’d be making use of to be licensed. However they’re going through a variety of stress since making these bulletins.
CHANG: Wait. What sort of stress?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Effectively, Walgreens’ board assembly was interrupted by some anti-abortion protesters in late January. Then 20 attorneys normal from Republican states despatched a letter in February to Walgreens and plenty of different pharmacy chains warning them that in the event that they allowed mifepristone to be despatched via the mail, they’d be violating a Nineteenth-century federal legislation. Now, the rationale that we’re speaking about Walgreens at present is as a result of it really responded to the letter. Different chains like CVS and Walmart and Kroger, which additionally obtained the letter, apparently haven’t responded in any respect. Walgreens did. And it stated to the AGs, basically, don’t fret. We’ll solely be dishing out this treatment in locations the place we legally can. So I referred to as up Lindsay Wiley, a well being legislation professor at UCLA.
LINDSAY WILEY: I might think about that, you realize, CVS is feeling fairly good about hanging again and seeing how this performs out proper now.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: To be clear, nothing has modified but. That is about an introduced plan for expanded entry to this treatment via retail pharmacies. It is a combat concerning the future. However Wiley says it is an vital combat now that states have way more affect over entry to reproductive well being care.
WILEY: Mifepristone abortion drugs have grow to be a political soccer for state elected officers – governors, attorneys normal – to say the ability that they’ve.
CHANG: OK, properly, Selena, politics apart, what does Governor Newsom’s announcement imply, virtually talking, this concept that California won’t be doing enterprise with Walgreens?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Yeah, I put that query to Richard Dang at present. He is the president of the California Pharmacists Affiliation, and this is how he responded.
RICHARD DANG: That is a extremely nice query and a query that we’re making an attempt to reply ourselves as properly.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: His greatest guess is that California would possibly attempt to use its public medical health insurance plans – just like the Obamacare alternate plans, Medicaid, insurance coverage for state staff – to make these plan not contract with Walgreens. That may imply folks with these plans would not be capable of get any of their drugs crammed via Walgreens. However Wiley, the legislation professor, says executing on that might be super-complicated since there are a variety of personal insurance coverage contracts concerned. It will be super-slow. It is also a guess. As I stated, Newsom’s workplace hasn’t supplied any particulars to NPR or different shops a few timeline or specifics. Wiley says, to her, it is much less a few coverage and extra about sending a message, which is what the Republican attorneys normal have been making an attempt to do too, to make use of their clout to affect what these pharmacy chains do subsequent relating to entry to abortion drugs.
CHANG: That’s NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin. Thanks, Selena.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Thanks.
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