CV NEWS FEED // Twenty state attorneys general this week sent a letter to CVS and Walgreens warning the pharmacy retail giants against providing abortion drugs by mail.
Missouri Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey led the effort, stating that the letter informs CVS and Walgreens that “federal law expressly prohibits using the mail to send or receive any drug that will ‘be used or applied for producing abortion’…”
As reported on CatholicVote’s LOOPcast, retail pharmacies CVS and Walgreens recently announced they would fill prescriptions for mifepristone, the primary drug used in chemical abortions, both over the counter and by mail.
CVS and Walgreens are the largest pharmacy chains in the United States, with a combined total of over 18,000 stores.
According to FOX News, the retailers made the announcement “after the Biden administration in early January developed a plan… to change a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rule in a way that would allow companies like Walgreens and CVS to apply for a certification” to distribute mifepristone.
In their letter, the 20 Republican attorneys general warn that the Biden administration’s new interpretation is a false reading of the relevant law, 18 U.S. Code § 1461, which classifies as “non mailable matter” every “article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion.”
“The text could not be clearer: ‘every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion … shall not be conveyed in the mails,’” the letter states. “And anyone who ‘knowingly takes any such thing from the mails for the purpose of circulating’ is guilty of a federal crime.”
Not only would CVS and Walgreens be in violation of federal law by mailing the abortion drug, but they are also at risk of prosecution under state law.
“In Missouri, for example, it is unlawful to distribute an abortion drug through the mail. Missouri law also prohibits unfair or deceptive trade practices—and trade practices that violate federal law necessarily are unfair and deceptive,” the letter concludes:
We emphasize that it is our responsibility as State Attorneys General to uphold the law and protect the health, safety, and well-being of women and unborn children in our states. Part of that responsibility includes ensuring that companies like yours are fully informed of the law so that harm does not come to our citizens.
As reported by CatholicVote, 40 Republicans in Congress recently issued a similar letter warning the Department of Justice (DOJ) that its aggressive pro-abortion agenda is in violation of the U.S. Code of Law.
Tom McClusky, CatholicVote Director of Government Affairs, noted:
This is a typical day in Biden’s America when state attorney generals have to step up to defend a federal law that Joe Biden wants to ignore. These pills of life destruction are the abortion industries last chance to spread death to prolife states. These state AGs deserve huge praise for standing for law and order.
The FDA also recently voiced concerns over the safety of abortion-by-mail for mothers as demand for chemical abortion pills surged following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe vs. Wade in June 2022.
Read more >> Republicans Confront DOJ Over ‘Criminal’ Abortion Agenda