Newly appointed Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey hasn’t done enough about the largest U.S. pharmacies allegedly unlawfully prescribing and distributing mail-ordered abortion pills, according to a 2024 candidate for Missouri Attorney General.
“That’s a potential subject for subpoenas or other investigative actions and so far, the Attorney General's office hasn't really announced any such actions on this issue other than sending out a letter,” said Republican Will Scharf.
Bailey served Walgreens and CVS with a warning earlier this month that drug stores selling abortion pills through the mail are violating federal law and local abortion laws in some states. Nineteen other attorneys general from conservative states also signed the letter.
“When abortion drugs are mailed or consumed outside a regulated medical facility, the risk of coercion is much higher—indeed, guaranteed—because there is no oversight,” Bailey wrote in the Feb. 1 letter. “Outside the regulated medical context, a person can obtain an abortion pill quite easily and then coerce a woman into taking it.”
Although it is illegal statewide to mail an abortion drug through the U.S. Postal Service and federal law bans using the mail to send or receive any abortion drug, in December 2022, the Biden administration’s Office of Legal Counsel encouraged the U.S. Postal Service to disregard it, according to Bailey's letter.
"We reject the Biden administration’s bizarre interpretation, and we expect courts will as well," Bailey wrote. "Courts do not lightly ignore the plain text of statutes."
Other states that are following Bailey's lead include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
“The abortion pill is a dangerous drug,” Scharf told the St. Louis Record. “Rates of complications of women who use the abortion pill are much, much higher than women who undergo surgical abortions when you adjust for gestational age. It’s great that Attorney General Bailey is talking about the issue but I'd like to see more in the way of concrete action.”
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum is leading 23 states in supporting CVS and Walgreens, arguing that drug stores have a legal right to dispense abortion pharmaceuticals.
“Mifepristone and misoprostol are safe, effective medications that are used lawfully for a variety of purposes that comport with federal and state law,” the attorneys general wrote in their Feb. 16 counter letter. “They are FDA-approved for use in terminating a pregnancy through ten weeks gestation, which is a protected right under many states’ laws. In short, the antiquated legal theory the anti-abortion states attempt to revive is meritless and has been repeatedly and consistently rejected.”
As previously reported in Missouri Lawyers Media, Walgreens denied prescribing mifepristone but admitted that they are undergoing a process that will certify them to ship, track, and privately store prescriptions.
“We fully understand that we may not be able to dispense Mifepristone in all locations if we are certified under the program,” Walgreens Spokesman Fraser Engerman told Missouri Lawyers Media.
Scharf served as Eric Greitens' policy director when he was governor until June 2018. He is best known for his role in a special session on pro-life issues in the summer of 2017.
"The impetus for that bill was that we uncovered really dangerous practices going on at the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic," Scharf added. "They were, for example, ordering ambulances to respond to medical emergencies without lights and sirens, potentially delaying needed lifesaving care to women who they'd harmed."