Newsom: California won’t do business with Walgreens over abortion pills

California “will not do business with Walgreens” after the company said it would ban mail-order abortion pills in 20 states, Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Twitter Monday.

Newsom tweeted that the state would not do business with “any company that cowards extremists and puts women’s lives at risk. It’s finished”.

Walgreens’ announcement came Thursday after attorneys general in 20 states warned Walgreens and CVS last month that they could face legal consequences if they sell abortion pills by mail order in those states.

It was not immediately clear what Newsom’s announcement meant for Walgreens or whether any other Democratic-led states would follow suit.

Walgreens spokesman Fraser Engerman confirmed last week that the company sent a response to each of the attorneys general saying it would not issue mifepristone in their states.

Nineteen US states have introduced restrictions on the use of abortion pills, but there is litigation over whether they have the right to do so, contrary to US Food and Drug Administration policy. Earlier this year, a doctor and the mifepristone pill company filed separate lawsuits in an effort to lift bans in North Carolina and West Virginia.

For more than 20 years, the FDA has limited the release of the drug only in specialized institutions and clinics for safety reasons. But it has eased restrictions since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, removing the requirement for the pill to be in person and allowing it to be sold in regular pharmacies. At least one anti-abortion lawsuit alleges that the FDA overstepped its authority by approving abortion drugs.

Engerman said the company does not currently market mifepristone, although it is working to qualify for it through an FDA-mandated certification process. This process requires pharmacies to meet certain standards regarding the delivery, tracking and confidentiality of prescribing records.

He said the company “will only sell in jurisdictions where it is legal to do so if we are certified.”