ST PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is among a group of 14 governors calling on major pharmacies across the country to clarify their plans to distribute abortion medication.
The group issued a letter to CVS, Rite-Aid, Walmart, Safeway, Kroger, Costco, and Health Mart, thanking them for carefully considering their role in expanding access to medication abortion and in the process, safeguarding access to reproductive health care.
“As companies that dispense critical, life-saving medications, we urge that your decisions continue to be guided by well-established science and medical evidence and a commitment to the health and well-being of patients – not politics or litigation threats,” wrote the governors, members of the Reproductive Freedom Alliance, who call themselves a non-partisan coalition committed to reproductive health care access.
The letter maintains that recent media reports suggest that some major pharmacy retailers may be considering the option of not dispensing abortion medication to "millions of individuals" due to political pressure. The group mentions Mifepristone, a generic form of an abortion medication the FDA approved for use in 2000, and calls on the retail pharmacies to disclose their plans for dispensing the abortion pill as well as any other actions they plan "to take to safeguard access to reproductive health care."
Governors supporting and signing the letter include:
- California Governor Gavin Newsom
- Illinois Governor JB Pritzker
- Maine Governor Janet Mills
- Maryland Governor Wes Moore
- Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey
- Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer
- Minnesota Governor Tim Walz
- New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy
- New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham
- New York Governor Kathy Hochul
- North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper
- Oregon Governor Tina Kotek
- Washington Governor Jay Inslee
- Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers
The letter from the governors is below, in its entirety.
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