Rock and a Hard Place

Drug chain facing choice between conservative legal threats, liberal outrage

There’s an old expression, “stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

Walgreens must be thinking about those words right now.

In light of the U.S. Supreme Court reversal of Roe v. Wade, several states are taking measures to halt sales of the abortion pill mifepristone.

The drugstore chain announced last week it would stop selling the pills in about 20 states where attorneys general have threatened legal action.

On Friday, Walgreens assured consumers it still intends to sell mifepristone in states where “it is legal and operationally feasible.”

But that, apparently, wasn’t good enough for the nanniest of nanny states.

Summoning up all his moral indignation, California Gov. Gavin Newsom took to Twitter on Sunday and wrote, “California won’t be doing business with @walgreens – or any company that cowers to the extremists and puts women’s lives at risk.”

That’s right. If Walgreens dares follow the law in, say, Texas, then California may ban chain from providing prescriptions for state-funded medical plans. Including state employees, pension fund beneficiaries that would more than two million potential customers lost. Taking it a bit further, there are millions more Medicaid recipients who could find Walgreens off limits. It would be a big hit to the chain’s bottom line.

Looks like another old saying — we’ll clean it up just a bit — that says “cursed if you do, cursed if you don’t.” Face legal action in a number of states or face big losses in California (and any other blue state that decides to join in.)

When the nation’s highest court reversed Roe v. Wade, it meant abortion law is now up to individual states.

That’s states — plural. Nowhere in the court’s ruling did it say California will lead the way on abortion and the rest of the nation must meekly follow along.

Newsom may or may not go through with his threat. But if he does, Walgreens might just be forced to hit the road out of the state.

Like so many others already have.