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California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday withdrew a $54 million contract with Walgreens after the pharmacy big indicated it would not sell an abortion capsule by mail in some conservative-led states.
Newsom on Wednesday ordered state officers to not renew a contract with Walgreens to buy specialty pharmacy pharmaceuticals for California’s jail well being care system, together with antivirual and antifungal medicine and medicine used for congestive coronary heart failure. Walgreens has gotten about $54 million from the contract, which expires April 30.
Newsom’s workplace mentioned the state will purchase the medicine elsewhere.
“California won’t stand by as companies cave to extremists and reduce off vital entry to reproductive care and freedom,” Newsom mentioned in a information launch. “California is on observe to be the fourth largest economic system on the earth and we are going to leverage our market energy to defend the correct to decide on.”
A consultant from Walgreens, primarily based within the northern Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Sick., didn’t reply to an e mail from the Related Press searching for remark. However earlier this week, the corporate mentioned in a press release the corporate plans to dispense the drug, known as mifepristone, “in any jurisdiction the place it’s legally permissible to take action.”
“Offering legally accepted medicines to sufferers is what pharmacies do, and is rooted in our dedication to the communities wherein we function,” in response to a press release posted onto the corporate’s web site.
Mifepristone is a capsule that when mixed with one other capsule will finish a being pregnant. The U.S. Meals and Drug Administration accepted the capsule in 2000 to be used in as much as the tenth week of being pregnant. At the moment, greater than half of all abortions within the U.S. are finished by drugs, in response to the Guttmacher Institute, a analysis group that helps abortion rights.
After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom final 12 months overturned the federal proper to an abortion, greater than a dozen states have restricted using abortion drugs. However these restrictions are being challenged in courtroom.
Attorneys normal in 20 states, largely with Republican governors, have warned Walgreens and CVS they may face authorized penalties in the event that they promote abortion drugs of their states. Final week, Walgreens confirmed it despatched a response to every lawyer normal saying it might not dispense the drug of their states.
Newsom responded to that information on Monday, posting in a message on Twitter that California gained’t be doing enterprise with Walgreens “or any firm that cowers to the extremists and places ladies’s lives in danger.”
“We’re finished,” Newsom mentioned.
Dropping the California contract may have a small impression on Walgreens’ revenues, as the corporate reported $132.7 billion in gross sales for the fiscal 12 months that ended Aug. 31.
However for Newsom, the transfer is extra about solidifying California’s function as a frontrunner in what he has known as “reproductive freedom.”
Newsom has vowed to make California a sanctuary for individuals in different states the place abortion is prohibited or severely restricted. Final 12 months, Newsom signed greater than a dozen new laws aiming to guard abortion rights, together with signing off on $20 million in new spending to assist pay for the journey and lodging bills for individuals to come back to California from different states to get an abortion.
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