Filmmaker Michael Moore is calling for a boycott of Walgreens, after the pharmacy chain announced it would not sell abortion pills in 20 states. Walgreens’ decision came after receiving a letter from 20 Republican state attorneys general, threatening legal action if the company provided the abortion pill, mifepristone, to consumers across the U.S.
In response, Moore took to his website, characterizing Walgreens as a pharmacy chain that “stands with anti-abortion extremists against the rights of women.” He urged readers to boycott Walgreens and claimed that their “aggressive tactics” were based on the Comstock Act of 1873, which outlawed sending “obscene items” through the mail.
Moore posted on his website:
This decision by Walgreens to further cement women’s status as second-class citizens must be met forcefully by each and every one of us. Every day of our silence since last Thursday is another day of you and I enabling this bigotry and misogyny. Please join with me and others in a NATIONWIDE BOYCOTT OF WALGREENS. They must reverse their decision immediately.
Let Walgreens know you have stopped shopping there. Let the other pharmaceutical chains know you’ll do the same to them if they follow Walgreens’ lead. Picket your local Walgreens. Tell the White House to stand strong, and let your members of Congress know this is one of your top issues in deciding how you will vote next year.
Moore also criticized the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, calling the ruling a “legal whipping of women” and asserting that the Justices based their opinion on the “authoritarian religion” of Christianity. He called on his audience to make their voices heard by contacting local reproductive rights groups, picketing local Walgreens, and urging their representatives to take action.
