Florida isn’t the only state to warn pharmacies of dispensing abortion bills despite the federal law—in total there are 20. A letter from Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey was sent to CVS and Walgreens Wednesday warning them not to dispense abortion pills, the letter was co-signed by 19 other attorneys general, the Associated Press reported.
While Bailey did not specify what legal action he would take if the pharmacies began selling abortion pills to Missourians by mail, he warned them of the restrictions the states had in place. The letter was co-signed by attorneys general in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
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“I will enforce the laws as written,” Bailey said in a statement to the Associated Press. “That includes laws protecting the health of women and their unborn children. The FDA rule is in direct violation of federal law, and the unelected bureaucrats at the FDA have no authority to change Missouri law, either. The people’s elected representatives have spoken on the issue of abortion in our state, and we will fight to uphold that in court.”
The Missouri law Bailey is referring to was written in 2019 as a trigger law and implemented almost immediately after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. According to Missouri’s abortion ban, performing an abortion is a felony punishable by five to 15 years in prison. While pregnant people are not prosecuted, those performing abortions are at risk of both prison time and losing their medical licenses.
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According to the Associated Press, while at least 19 states have imposed restrictions on abortion pills, whether they can do so or not is still being speculated on. The move to ban and limit abortion pills nationwide comes after a federal government announcement in which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said a rule change would permit pharmacies to dispense abortion pills including mifepristone and misoprostol.
While conservative states quickly made efforts to place bans to prevent this from happening, the White House announced that it will protect abortion rights and access to these pills. A physician and company that makes the pill mifepristone even filed separate lawsuits seeking to end the bans in North Carolina and West Virginia.
At this time Walgreens has not begun dispensing mifepristone. Pharmacies across the country are working to become eligible through the FDA-mandated certification process.
“We fully understand that we may not be able to dispense Mifepristone in all locations if we are certified under the program,” a statement from spokesman Fraser Engerman said to the AP.
RELATED STORY: White House announces actions to protect medication abortion access on anniversary of Roe v. Wade
Outside of the warnings, pharmacies have also braced themselves for protests and violence. Since the announcement that pharmacies will be permitted to dispense abortion pills, anti-abortion advocates have organized demonstrations outside of CVS and Walgreens to take place in February, Politico reported.
Similar to the approach they took to those visiting clinics for health care, anti-abortion activists are aimed at making people uncomfortable when entering drugstores to seek medical assistance.
