Calls to boycott Walgreens grow as pharmacy confirms it will not sell abortion pills in 20 states, including some where it remains legal
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Walgreens confirmed Thursday that it will not carry abortion pills in several states, including some in which the pills are still legal.
The phrases “Walgreens” and “#BoycottWalgreens” each trended on Twitter Thursday night into Friday morning as discussion ensued and some users vowed to stop supporting the chain.
The decision, first reported by Politico on Thursday, comes after 20 Republican attorneys general last month wrote to Walgreens and several other pharmacies including CVS, Walmart, and Costco to point out laws that could be violated if the companies provided abortion pills through the mail.
Walgreens told Politico that it has responded to the states represented by the 20 AGs, and said it will not distribute the abortion pill Mifepristone in any of those states. That group includes Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, and Montana, where the procedure and medications for abortions are largely still legal, Politico reported.
The FDA announced in January that retail pharmacies would be allowed to distribute the pills to those with a prescription; the pills previously were only accessible through doctors or mail-order pharmacies. At the time, Walgreens told Insider that it was working to become FDA-certified to sell abortion pills in the states where they are legal.
The company wrote to the 20 attorneys general that it would not dispense the pills in their states, but it has still not publicly confirmed which states the pills may be available in or whether that list is affected by the policy confirmed Thursday.
Some Twitter users voiced their support of the decision from Walgreens, but several high-profile commentators and Democrats voiced their displeasure with the policy.
“Women across the nation will be denied their right to access healthcare they are legally entitled to because of this awful corporate decision,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, the highest level elected official in the state where Walgreens is headquartered, tweeted. “@Walgreens must rethink this policy. To all the other pharmacy providers, we’ll stand with you so you can provide this lifesaving care.”
Ron Klain, a longtime aide to President Joe Biden who left his White House role as Biden’s chief of staff earlier this year, cited Walgreen’s slogan in his response: “Their slogan is ‘Trusted since 1901’ — but if @Walgreens won’t fill prescriptions for lawful, needed medicines, where is the “trust” in that?”
“Absolutely awful. This willful corporate choice will prevent so many women from choosing the healthcare they need and have a legal right to,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Illinois, tweeted. “@Walgreens should reverse course—immediately.”
Responses to Politico’s Alice Miranda Ollstein’s original tweet announcing the news are also filled with hundreds of users saying they will “no longer be spending any money at Walgreens” or “never step foot in a Walgreens again.”
Mifepristone is currently the subject of multiple lawsuits, with a Texas judge expected to deliver a ruling in the coming weeks on a challenge from Republican attorneys general looking to overturn the FDA’s decades-old approval of the pill. Several Democratic attorneys general filed an argument in the case last month that said banning the pill would lead to an “unprecedented spike” in maternal mortality.
Walgreens did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the public reaction to the policy.