Newsom denounces Walgreens for saying it’d solely dispense abortion tablet in some states : NPR

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

California Governor Gavin Newsom despatched a warning on Twitter to Walgreens yesterday after the pharmacy chain introduced that it could solely dispense a drugs 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 girls’s lives in danger.” NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin has been what which means for abortion entry and what’s behind this determination 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 position that pharmacies at the moment play in offering entry to the remedy we’re speaking about right here?

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Proper. So we’re speaking about mifepristone. It is one in all two medicines 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 numerous restrictions on who can present it, who can prescribe it, how sufferers can get it. They should, , 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 accomplished with medicines, so it is a huge a part of this story. In January, the Meals and Drug Administration introduced that it could permit retail pharmacies to use to be licensed to dispense this remedy for the primary time. In order that’s an enormous 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 incredible quantity of proof, together with our personal analysis, displaying that pharmacists dishing out mifepristone is secure and efficient. And so, lastly, the coverage is beginning to catch as much as the science.

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: After the FDA stated that they may, Walgreens and CVS each introduced that they’d be making use of to be licensed. However they’re dealing with quite a lot of stress since making these bulletins.

CHANG: Wait. What sort of stress?

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Properly, Walgreens’ board assembly was interrupted by some anti-abortion protesters in late January. Then 20 attorneys basic 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 by way of the mail, they might be violating a Nineteenth-century federal legislation. Now, the explanation that we’re speaking about Walgreens immediately is as a result of it really responded to the letter. Different chains like CVS and Walmart and Kroger, which additionally received the letter, apparently haven’t responded in any respect. Walgreens did. And it stated to the AGs, primarily, don’t be concerned. We’ll solely be dishing out this remedy 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’d think about that, , 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 remedy by way of retail pharmacies. It is a battle in regards to the future. However Wiley says it is an necessary battle now that states have rather more affect over entry to reproductive well being care.

WILEY: Mifepristone abortion tablets have develop into a political soccer for state elected officers – governors, attorneys basic – to say the facility that they’ve.

CHANG: OK, effectively, 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 immediately. 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 effectively.

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: His greatest guess is that California would possibly attempt to use its public medical insurance plans – just like the Obamacare trade plans, Medicaid, insurance coverage for state workers – to make these plan not contract with Walgreens. That may imply individuals with these plans would not be capable to get any of their medicines crammed by way of Walgreens. However Wiley, the legislation professor, says executing on that might be super-complicated since there are quite a lot 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 retailers 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 basic 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 tablets.

CHANG: That’s NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin. Thanks, Selena.

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Thanks.

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