Des Moines, Iowa — Iowa’s attorney general has signaled she would likely join a multi-state lawsuit if major pharmacy chains start selling abortion pills by mail.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has not issued a written statement of her own but has added her signature to letters from attorneys general in Missouri and Alabama. One of the letters Bird and 19 other Republicans signed says as state attorneys general, it is their responsibility to protect the health, safety, and well-being of women and unborn children in their states.
The letters to Walgreens and CVS come after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced women seeking abortion pills could get them through the mail.
A bill has been introduced in the state legislature that would ban sending abortion pills through the mail in Iowa. Medication abortion has been available in the United States for 23 years. The most recent data indicates nearly 80 percent of abortions in Iowa in 2020 were induced by medication. About a dozen other states now ban abortion pills.
