After initially assuring the state that it would not sell the abortion pill mifepristone in its Alaska stores, Walgreens has since reversed course and is now dispensing the deadly drug to Alaskans.
Investigative pro-life advocates in Soldotna caught wind of the decision and are organizing a protest set for today, Feb. 16 at 3:30 p.m., outside the Soldotna Walgreens.
Just two years ago, the Soldotna Planned Parenthood shuttered its doors, prompting pro-lifers to celebrate the demise of the longstanding abortion mill. Now, they are concerned that Walgreens is going to fill the void by dispensing a drug which is designed to starve and kill a developing baby in the womb.
Longtime local pro-life advocate Becky Hinsberger has worked in the pro-life community for more than 30 years, engaging in pickets, sidewalk counseling and prayer vigils outside the now shuttered Planned Parenthood clinic in Soldotna. She has also volunteered in pro-life pregnancy centers to empower women to choose life for their unborn babies.
Regardless of how the U.S. Supreme Court rules, Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor has emphasized that state law clearly forbids the dispensing of abortion drugs outside of a clinical setting.
Hinsberger twice visited the Soldotna Walgreens to investigate what’s happening.
“Each time they have affirmed that they are dispensing mifepristone by prescription,” she said.
The Alaska Watchman confirmed this with a local Walgreens staffer, who said the Soldotna store requires a script to distribute 200 mg of mifepristone to local residents.
“Yes, we do have that in stock,” a staffer told the Watchman on Feb. 16. “Your doctor will just send a script to us and then we’ll get it filled for you.”
The decision to dispense mifepristone comes just one year after Walgreens sent a letter to 20 states, including Alaska, saying it would not sell the abortion drug in its Alaska stores.
The Walgreens letter was sent after Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor, along with other state attorneys general, issued a warning to pharmacies last March, noting that state law prohibits the sale of mifepristone directly to patients, whether by mail or in person.
“Since 2000, Alaska women who seek an abortion have had to see a physician to receive this abortion drug,” Taylor explained in a 2023 clarification of state law. “Under Alaska law, a woman in Alaska who receives a dose of mifepristone does so in a clinical setting. There are telehealth provisions, but no matter what, the pill is still administered in a clinic, where the prescribing doctor is either present or virtually present through telehealth.”
In the wake of the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion activists across the nation have been aggressively trying to loosen longstanding rules governing the distribution of chemical abortions. In December of 2021, Biden’s Food & Drug Administration lifted its requirement that abortion drugs be dispensed in person. This allowed pharmacists to issue drugs via mail to anyone who had a prescription.
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That decision has been challenged, and the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case on March 26.
Regardless of how the U.S. Supreme Court rules, Taylor has emphasized that Alaska law clearly forbids the dispensing of abortion drugs outside of a clinical setting.
“The patient who receives a dose of mifepristone must do so in a clinic, and the prescribing provider is present either physically or virtually through telehealth,” his clarification states.
Hinsberger has reached out to the Attorney General’s Office as well as state legislators to find out what Alaska can do to prevent Walgreens from distributing the drug.
She’s also contacted Walgreen stores in Wasilla and Anchorage, but said they are not currently distributing mifepristone because they do not yet have it in stock.
“I’ve been very frustrated trying to get ahold of Attorney General Treg Taylor,” she said. “What’s going on here, he said it couldn’t be dispensed but they are all online to dispense it and some are actually doing it. At least tell us the status of what’s going on.”
The Watchman has reached out to the Attorney General’s Office for clarification, and are awaiting a response by 5 p.m. on Feb. 16. This is a developing story, which will be updated as more information comes in.
TAKING ACTION
The Soldotna picket and prayer gathering outside the Walgreens store begins at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 16, at the Soldotna Y. The intent is to protest the store’s decision and to encourage would-be patrons to boycott Walgreens and let their management know how dismayed the community is with its decision to profit from the deaths of unborn babies. Organizers will have a limited number of signs available on site, and attendees are welcome to make and bring their own. For more information, call organizer Toby Burke at (907) 335-1558.
14 Comments
Leave it to Treg Taylor to write a letter! To Walgreens and the school librarians! Both meaningless! Nobody takes this dunleavy administration seriously!!!
AG Treg Taylor claims in his press release of March 17, 2023, that “AS 18.16.010(a)(1) has always operated to prohibit the sale of mifepristone directly to patients, whether by mail or in person.” However, even a very close read of the statute does not support his claim that direct sales of the drug to a woman who self-administers mifepristone is illegal under Alaska state law. Note his attempt to spin the statute to make it APPEAR to be illegal for a woman to purchase mifepristone that was prescribed to her: “AS 18.16.010(a)(1) HAS ALWAYS OPERATED [emphasis added]….” But, in fact, it is not illegal under Alaska law for women to purchase the legally prescribed drug, nor is it illegal for her to self-administer the drug that was legally prescribed. Further, Taylor’s statement that only a licensed physician is legally allowed to prescribe mifepristone is also incorrect. Because of a court injunction, Advanced Practice Clinicians (APCs) in Alaska are also allowed to prescribe and to oversee medical abortions. APCs are comprised of Physician Assistants and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs). APRNs are further delineated as either Nurse Practitioner (NP), Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS), Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM), or Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA).
Protesters can picket to their hearts’ content, but their actions will not change the plain facts that mifepristone is legal in Alaska, is legal to be dispensed by Walgreens or any other pharmacy, and may be prescribed by a wide range of health practitioners.
Yes, protestors can picket to their hearts’ content and it WILL change hearts regardless of whether the abortion pill is being distributed “legally” or “illegally”. The bottom line: protestors are casting light on the pharmacies evil deeds, legal or illegal, and ultimately they will not stand the light of day. Abortion is murder and there is no way to make this heinous crime appear beautiful and just. Guided by The Natural Law that every human heart and mind is subject to, we cannot help but instinctively recoil from and reject the lies put forward by those who assert that abortion is anything but ugly and wicked.
It’s a sad day when you realise this drug is only available at Walgreens. On average only 1,500 abortions in the US per day. THOSE ARE ROOKIE NUMBERS !!!! We can’t let the Chinese beat us come on USA, let’s show them who’s number 1.
Women want to control their bodies, family and future. It’s despicable that the Feds want to remove our freedoms of privacy, family planning and intimacy.
Easy to do Lucinda: don’t have sex until you are married and in a good position financially and mentally to raise children. Just amazing that people like you just cannot grasp the concept – no sex…no unwanted pregnancy!
FOSOH: Women want to control their bodies, family and future. It’s despicable that the Feds want to remove our freedoms of privacy, family planning and intimacy.
It’s insulting to women to hold that we must poison our bodies and risk blood clots, massive hemorrhaging, possible death, and the murder of our children in order to “control” our bodies, family and future.
Self-control is possible, and Friend of Humanity is right.
I totally agree with you, although these religious nuts will bother you.
Pass House bill Walgreens; one way ticket back to Davos Switzerland to sell pills to the Rothschild cult!
Everyone boycott Walgreens! Chase the goat ropers back to Seattle!
Boycott Walgreens; chase the goat ropers back to Seattle!
Pro lifers are doing so based mostly on what their religion tells them. Your religion is not mine. Stop treating women like they aren’t smart enough to decide what they need. This drug will prevent a fetus from implanting. A fetus that is not implanted is not a baby.
jon, what do you say to the atheist who does not believe in abortion also?
What, then, is it? Does It become a baby upon implantation in the uterus? What is it if it implants within a Fallopian tube?