Abortion Drug Distribution by Mail Violates State and Federal Law, 20 State AGs Warn CVS and Walgreens

The CVS logo at a CVS HealthHUB location in Los Angeles on Aug. 8, 2022. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Twenty Republican state attorneys general sent letters to CVS and Walgreens pharmacies, warning them that distributing abortion medication through the mail violates state and federal laws.

The attorneys general, led by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, warned the pharmacy giants that they could face legal consequences if they move forward with their distribution plan.

Bailey said in a press release regarding the letters that his office is doing everything possible to warn the firms that they will move to prevent the distribution plan: “As Attorney General, it is my responsibility to enforce the laws as written, and that includes enforcing the very laws that protect Missouri’s women and unborn children. My Office is doing everything in its power to inform these companies of the law, with the promise that we will use every tool at our disposal to uphold the law if broken.”

Early in January, CVS and Walgreens announced plans to begin the certification process for FDA approval to offer abortion drugs through the mail.

This was following news in December 2022 that a Planned Parenthood affiliate announced it was offering telemedicine abortion services following a Kansas court giving the thumbs up to the practice, as The Epoch Times previously reported.

The attorney general’s letters informed 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’… the text could not be clearer: ‘every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion … shall not be conveyed in the mails.’ And anyone who ‘knowingly takes any such thing from the mails for the purpose of circulating’ is guilty of a federal crime.”

Additionally, the letters state that the practice of abortion by mail would be in violation of some states’ laws, saying that in Missouri “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.”

“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,” the attorneys general said to conclude their letters. “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.”

In writing the letters, the Missouri attorney general was joined by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.