Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani joins the Live show to discuss reports that Walgreens will not sell abortion pills in 20 U.S. states.
Video Transcript
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– Walgreens says it will not be selling abortion pills in some states where it remains legal. That’s after several Republican attorneys general threatened legal action. Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani has the details. So, Anj, um, this is an interesting new sort of frontier in this fight.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: It is, for several reasons. First of all, it is Walgreens taking a stance in a political space, which is interesting for a company that is really looking to get more into clinical services and medical services. We know that the Walgreens strategy is to get into more of a medical space. So that’s really interesting in terms of, I don’t know, customer building, brand building.
But so what’s going on right now is Walgreens saying that it won’t be selling in 20 states by mail order. And that includes some states, like you mentioned, where it is legal, still, the pills are still legal. And that’s mifepristone specifically. And that’s one of the two pills commonly used for abortion. So about, I think, four states, including Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, and Montana, are part of that where the attorney general are asking Walgreens not to sell by mail order.
And this comes after the FDA opened up the ability for this pill to be sold by mail order and in more brick-and-mortar places. Until January, it had really been restricted to certain clinical areas like, you know, Planned Parenthood and that type of clinical services. So it’s a completely different ballgame. All the other pharmacies are also facing the same pressure and the same line.
CVS has not yet responded Walgreens did not respond to a request for comment from Yahoo Finance. So we’re gonna just have to wait and see whether or not they actually pull back on this stance. You know, there have been a number of congressmen– Congress leaders asking for Walgreens to change their mind and/or calling for a ban or a boycott altogether. So it’s gonna be pretty interesting to see how this all pans out.
– Yeah, it definitely– well, I mean, it sounds like, from what you’re saying, that people who still want access to these pills in these states still have avenues for that access at other pharmacies for now.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: For now. And it depends on some because the FDA rule that changed in January asks for these pharmacies to request access. So they have to basically get clearance from the FDA to start selling them and notify where they’re gonna be selling them as well. So it’s gonna–
– So they haven’t done that yet.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: They’re in the process of that right now.
– And Walgreens has said it’s not going to do that.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Has told these attorneys general that they’re not going to and that they’re going to be doing it in some of the other states. We don’t know the names of those states yet. So it’s a really– it’s still a developing story, if you will.
– Yes, most definitely.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: So that’s the best way to kind of describe it right now. We still don’t know which of the other pharmacies, like Walmart, Target, Rite Aid, where they’re going to be selling as well. Also, the other sort of mail-order pharmacies that are online, right, ways that you get access– Amazon’s now in the pharmacy space. What are they doing? So there are a lot of questions still about how this all plays out.
– Well, there’s a lot of questions about why Walgreens has made this decision as well. Was it under threat of lawsuit? Speaking of threats, the way I found out about this story was on social media–
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Yeah.
– –because someone I followed was calling for a boycott. So you have to wonder– I don’t know if there’s a way to measure it in a quantitative fashion– how much steam that is gaining and what effect it could have.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Right. And the lawsuits are already happening, right? We’re still waiting for Texas to come out with their rule on whether or not it can be available by mail order. We’ve also seen a couple of other states, like North Carolina and West Virginia, lawsuits there.
So it’s all playing out, and this all following the overturning of Roe v Wade. So this is the fallout of that right now that we’re sort of witnessing live as it develops.
– Yeah, so when you see a consumer staples company take a big political stand, not something you see every day there.
– No.
– So thanks for that report. And we’ll be talking to you about this in the days and weeks to come–
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: I’m sure you will.
– –Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani.
