California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced the state will not do business with the Walgreens store chain “or any company that cowers to the extremists and puts women’s lives at risk.” Notice the familiar buzzwords — extremists and putting women’s lives at risk.
Newsom’s statement followed an announcement by Walgreens that its pharmacies won’t dispense the Mifepristone abortion pill in states where abortion is illegal and in several other states where there are minimal or no restrictions, including Alaska, Iowa, Montana, and Kansas because of the “complexity and flux of the laws.”
One might wish the chain had taken a more principled stand, such as “isn’t the killing of more than 60 million babies too many?” Or, “what about the women who have been scarred for life — physically, emotionally and spiritually — by abortions and regret them?” Even so, the Walgreens statement sounds good for now, so far as it goes. For how long is the question, as pressure to provide the drug nationwide is likely to increase?
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., have written the Government Accountability Office arguing the FDA’s new guidance about the drug may constitute a “rule” and thus becomes subject to congressional review under the Congressional Review Act. In the letter they say, “The FDA did not submit this policy to Congress and we believe it is imperative that all agency rules remain subject to the full spectrum of congressional oversight afforded by law.”
When I was growing up in the Washington, D.C., area, one pharmacy was dominant. It was called Peoples Drug Store. It is now CVS and long ago went nationwide. In the 1950s, if anyone wanted a product that was related to sex, such as condoms, one had to approach the pharmacy counter and request them. Usually this required teenage boys to speak to a woman, who could be relied on to offer a disapproving glance. She might have known our parents. These experiences, along with parental disapproval and embarrassment, kept many from heading down a road that has led to unwanted consequences, including out-of-wedlock pregnancy, abortion and STDs.