Gavin Newsom Dumping Walgreens And Any Other Cowards That Cave To Anti-Abortion Fascists

Do not obey in advance.

So Walgreens is being a fuckin' coward right now.

Quick pop quiz: What is historian and authoritarianism expert Timothy Snyder's FIRST RULE of fighting back against fascists? "Do not obey in advance." Those are the first words of the first chapter of his book On Tyranny. "Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts to this way is teaching power what it can do."

Despite the scaremongering lies of the religious Right, most abortions in America involve taking a pill, or to be specific, one mifepristone pill and 24 to 48 hours later, four pills of misoprostol. It is safe, and mifepristone, the drug that gets the abortion started, has been FDA-approved for over 20 years.

So of course the religious Right is targeting the FDA approval of mifepristone. A hastily assembled group of anti-abortion hate activists and doctors — the adorably named "Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine" — decided to go shopping for a judge who's enough of a hack to listen to their fake science and fulfill their wet dreams of banning mifepristone. They are pretty sure they have found that in Trump-appointed judicial clown Matthew Kacsmaryk, who runs the federal courtroom in Amarillo, Texas. Their lawyer? Republican Senator Josh Hawley's wife, Erin Hawley. Yeah, buddy, this case is not even pretending to be serious.

Kacsmaryk is currently dawdling on issuing his illegitimate partisan hack ruling, but we can't imagine we'll have to wait too much longer.

In advance of that ruling, Walgreens announced last week that it would go ahead and refuse to dispense mifepristone in 20 states, in response to threatening letters from Republican attorneys general, because Walgreens is a fuckin' coward. California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat obviously, has responded to that announcement by saying fine, then the state of California will quit doing business with Walgreens.

“California won't be doing business with @walgreens -- or any company that cowers to the extremists and puts women's lives at risk. We're done. https: //t.co/OB10cYfm8H”

— Gavin Newsom (@Gavin Newsom) 1678127550 

Specifically, Newsom's spox says all California's relationships with Walgreens are "under review" now. We do not know what-all relationships California has with Walgreens, but that's a big pharmacy business. They also sell lots of holiday decorations and seasonal knick-knacks, so maybe California will be henceforth and forthwith getting its Cadbury eggs and spooky Halloween buttplugs from CVS.

Here's Newsom's full statement:  

“California is reviewing all relationships between Walgreens and the state. We will not pursue business with companies that cave to right wing bullies pushing their extremist agenda or companies that put politics above the health of women and girls.”

Sounds correct to us.

PREVIOUSLY! Guess We're Not Shopping At Walgreens Anymore 

What happened is that Republican attorneys general in 20 states recently stomped their feet and shook their tailfeathers and issued a stern warning to Walgreens not to sell abortion pills through the mail in their states, even though abortion is legal in four of them: Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, and Montana. (Remember how much Kansas voters love abortion? ) In their letter, they cited Comstock Laws, which are stupid, obviously unconstitutional, and rarely enforced 19th century morality laws that ban the mailing of information and materials deemed “obscene, lewd or lascivious." They were famously used to target information about birth control, and also abortion.

If you are an attorney general or lawyer or judge in 2023 citing Comstock Laws, you are a damn joke and a shame to your profession.

The letter from the attorneys general also scaremongered about the so-called "dangers" of abortion pills. Again, they're safe. No credible medical source disputes that they're safe.

Anyway, Walgreens pretty much pre-emptively caved, saying it would not sell mife in any of those 20 states. (The cool kids in the abortion rights movement call it "mife," so you should get hip to the lingo, PEEPAW.) This is despite how the FDA gave physical pharmacies the go-ahead to start dispensing abortion medicine in January. It's not entirely clear what the other big pharmacies plan to do, but according to the Washington Post , CVS and Rite Aid had previously said they did plan to dispense mife once they are certified to do so.

The Post also notes that the Biden Justice Department has given online pharmacies — Walgreens does a big online business — the go-ahead to mail abortion pills to any state. Go eat a bag of dicks, Comstock Laws.

Weirdly, though, Walgreens issued a statement yesterday that said it does plan to dispense mife "in any jurisdiction where it is legally permissible to do so." It continues: "Once we are certified by the FDA, we will dispense this medication consistent with federal and state laws."

So there is some mixed messaging going on here, clearly.

But whatever, Gavin Newsom is going to FUCK YOU UP if you don't sell mife, so Walgreens needs to decide if it wants to get FUCK YOU UPPED by Gavin Newsom or if it wants the opposite of that.

We know which one we'd pick, and it is the one that doesn't involve being a fuckin' coward who pre-emptively sides with fascists.

[ KRON 4 ]

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