(LifeSiteNews) — A California Medicaid law will prevent Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom from continuing with his plans to boycott Walgreens over the pharmacy chain’s limited distribution of abortion pills.
Newsom, an outspoken advocate of abortion who has gone so far as to call California a “sanctuary” state for abortion in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, declared in March that his state “won’t be doing business” with the pharmacy chain after Walgreens announced it wouldn’t distribute the abortion pill in 20 states whose laws restrict the mailing of the drugs.
Recent assessments from legal experts have found that Newsom’s boycott would violate Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, which provides public health insurance for low-income residents and enables them to have access to drugs from authorized pharmacies. The program is funded by both state and federal government agencies.
“California has no intention of taking any action that would violate federal Medicaid requirements or that could undermine access for low-income individuals,” Tony Cava of the state’s Department of Health Care Services told Kaiser Health News in a statement.
A spokesperson for Newsom also told the outlet that the governor won’t “take any action that hurts people who need access to care” and that ph. According to public records obtained by Kaiser Health News, the pharmacy business was granted roughly $54 million from California through the contract and received $1.5 billion from the state in 2022.
While his dramatic boycott plan flounders, Newsom’s support for killing the unborn has not dwindled. Following a ruling from a Texas judge to pause the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the dangerous abortion pill, the leftist governor released a statement criticizing the step to protect the unborn.
“Today’s ruling, by an extremist judge pursuing a radical political agenda, ignores facts, science, and the law—putting the health of millions of women and girls at risk,” Newsom said according to an April 7 press release. “Abortion is still legal and accessible here in California and we won’t stand by as fundamental freedoms are stripped away.”
Days later, the governor announced in another press release that California was stocking up on a different abortion-inducing drug, countering the ruling that could fully revoke the FDA’s approval of mifepristone.
“In response to this extremist ban on a medication abortion drug, our state has secured a stockpile of an alternative medication abortion drug [misoprostol] to ensure that Californians continue to have access to safe [sic] reproductive health treatments,” Newsom said. “We will not cave to extremists who are trying to outlaw these critical abortion services [sic].”
Mifepristone and misoprostol are the most common drugs used in chemical abortions. The first prevents the hormone progesterone from reaching the developing baby and the second induces labor, ultimately resulting in a woman delivering her dead child. The FDA originally approved mifepristone in 2000, requiring the drug to be distributed by a supervising physician at authorized medical centers.
In 2021, the agency announced it was rescinding the requirement of in-person distribution, allowing pharmacies to mail the drugs to women who have a prescription. Updated guidelines in January further allow retail pharmacies to dispense the deadly drugs after the businesses have completed a simple agreement form, once again ignoring the dangerous side effects and normalizing abortion. In addition to Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid have announced plans to dispense abortion pills in line with the Biden administration’s loosened guidelines.
Despite claims that the drugs are “safe” for women, multiple studies and data have shown the opposite. Mifepristone and misoprostol, the so-called “gold standard” for chemical abortion, have been found to cause life-threatening side effects including severe sepsis and hemorrhaging. An earlier study determined that the drugs lead to a “22% greater risk of ER visit for any reason” and a “53% greater risk of ER visit for an abortion-related reason” when compared to surgical abortions.
In the wake of the historic Dobbs decision, which determined that the U.S. Constitution holds no fundamental “right” to abortion, a report based on documents from the State Medical Board of Ohio revealed that abortion pills left 5 women in the hospital and brought about 125 serious adverse reactions in only 16 months.
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