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14 state treasurers, financial officers urge Costco, fellow retailers to decline politicized calls to sell dangerous chemical abortion drugs
WASHINGTON – Treasurers and state financial officers representing 14 states sent letters Monday to Costco, Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons, and McKesson calling on C-suite leaders to resist political pressure to begin selling the chemical abortion drug mifepristone at their pharmacies.
The letters were signed by state financial officers of Texas, Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. The letters follow similar outreach in August from firms, financial advisors, and thousands of Costco members representing more than $100 billion in assets under management, including more than $172 million in ownership of the five retailers.
“We applaud the state financial officers calling for the companies to resist political pressure to dispense mifepristone,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Michael Ross. “Retailers like Costco and Walmart have nothing to gain and much to lose by selling dangerous abortion chemicals. Retail pharmacies are there to serve the health and wellness of their customers, but abortion drugs like mifepristone undermine that mission by putting women’s health at risk.”
The letters were written in response to pressure from New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who leveraged the funds of New York City’s employees two weeks before announcing his mayoral bid to pressure the companies to “immediately take the steps necessary” to begin dispensing the abortion drug mifepristone.
“As public officials who oversee various aspects of the financial interests of our own states, state employees, and citizens whom we represent, we find these actions to be inappropriate,” the letter states. “They are an attempt to launder political views thorough the commercial marketplace with little regard for the companies or their shareholders. Pushing political issues onto companies harms business, weakens investor fiduciary standards, and is detrimental to the ultimate beneficiaries who depend on strong economic results for their retirement.”
As the letter points out, this is only the most recent attempt from left-leaning financial officers to politicize the marketplace. The New York State Comptroller also recently retaliated against Best Buy company leaders for negotiating with conservative shareholders. And California’s pension fund also recently sided with climate activist shareholders working against Exxon Mobil. Lander previously was endorsed by former Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards and was tabbed as one of the city’s most radical-left politicians by the New York Times and Politico.
Lander also makes a series of false claims in his letters. Most egregiously, Lander asserts that mifepristone “has a safety profile comparable to that of ibuprofen.” The Food and Drug Administration’s own label admits that around 4% of women who take mifepristone end up in the emergency room. The FDA also has documented that 7% of women taking abortion drugs require surgery, while hospitalizations increase 300% with no in-person doctor’s visits—which the Biden-Harris administration eliminated from mandatory safety protocols.
“Retail pharmacies would be walking themselves into a legal and political minefield by complying with Lander’s demands,” Ross added. “Even following the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling which temporarily kept the chemical abortion drugs on the market, 18 states protect women and children from the harmful drugs and receiving and distributing abortion drugs by mail remains a felony under the federal Comstock Act, as attorneys general from 19 states reminded pharmacies last year.”
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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ABOUT Jeremy Tedesco
Jeremy Tedesco serves as senior counsel and senior vice president of corporate engagement for Alliance Defending Freedom. In this role, Tedesco leads ADF’s efforts to combat corporate cancel culture and build a business ethic that respects free speech, religious freedom, and human dignity. Immediately preceding his current role, Tedesco served as senior vice president for communications, during which time he was a lead convener of the Philadelphia Statement, a movement dedicated to restoring free speech and civil discourse. Previously, Tedesco litigated First Amendment cases at the highest levels. He was part of the legal team that represented cake artist Jack Phillips in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission before the U.S. Supreme Court and argued Phillips’ case at the Colorado Court of Appeals. He was also the lead brief writer in two other U.S. Supreme Court wins, Reed v. Town of Gilbert and Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn. Tedesco has also argued six times before five different federal appellate courts and founded and directed the ADF Center for Conscience Initiatives, where he led efforts to protect individuals from government-coerced speech. Tedesco earned his Juris Doctor in 2004 from the Regent University School of Law.
ABOUT Michael Ross
Michael Ross serves as legal counsel for the Corporate Engagement Team with Alliance Defending Freedom, where he assists in developing and implementing successful legal solutions and corporate engagement strategies to neutralize mounting corporate hostility to people of faith and to encourage corporations to respect free speech, religious freedom, and life. Ross previously served on the Center for Academic Freedom Team, defending the First Amendment freedoms of college students and student organizations on university campuses. Ross earned his Juris Doctor in 2016 from Vanderbilt Law School, where he served as president of the Christian Legal Society and executive authorities editor for the Vanderbilt Transnational Law Journal. He obtained B.A. degrees in mathematics and religious studies from Vanderbilt University in 2010. Ross is a member of the bar in Tennessee.