In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling, the Biden administration has taken actions intended to enshrine federal abortion rights — including a Food and Drug Administration rule allowing expanded availability of the abortion pill mifepristone.
BREAKING: Attorney General Merrick Garland said today that states cannot ban mifepristone — an FDA-approved abortion pill https://t.co/au0JxfZBE0
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The high court’s ruling last year, however, returns the power to the state level and a number of GOP-led states have enacted new laws restricting access to abortion.
These two forces collided in Kansas, where state Attorney General Kris Kobach confronted Walgreens for its decision to begin carrying the abortion pill in accordance with the FDA rule.
In his letter to the pharmacy chain, Kobach denounced the Biden administration’s “ends-justify-the-means” action on the issue and reiterated that disbursement of mifepristone is a violation of state abortion laws.
“I have become aware of your company’s recently announced plan to provide abortifacients through its mail-order pharmacy business,” he 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.”
As the law stipulates, abortion drugs may be used by patients in Kansas, but only under the direct supervision of the prescribing physician.
Kobach also noted that even existing federal law prohibits shipments of abortion-inducing products through the mail.
“President Biden is beholden to the country’s most extreme pro-abortion voices, who constantly advocate for expanding the abortion regime without any consideration of legality or even women’s safety,” the attorney general added. “But nothing requires you to join him. The law says what it says. I encourage you to follow it.”
Danielle Gray, the executive vice president of Walgreens’ parent organization, confirmed that the pharmacy is not currently planning to distribute the pill in Kansas.
“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 wrote. “If this approach changes, we will be sure to notify you.”
Earlier this month, lawmakers in South Carolina advanced the Human Life Protection Act, which aims to prevent abortion anytime after the point of conception — in accordance with the state’s constitutional protection against any citizen being “deprived of life without due process of law.”
