Could Walgreens Big Bow to Red States on Abortion Pills Backfire? It's Just Business

When Detroit native Rosalind ‘Roz’ Brewer left her position as COO at Starbucks in January 2021 to become the CEO of the Walgreens Boots Alliance, her appointment was hailed.

The Detroit native is a graduate of Spelman College and was elected in 2006 to the college’s Board of Trustees. Brewer has advanced studies degrees from the Advanced Management Program of The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of the Director’s College at the University of Chicago/Stanford School of Law. Her store management portfolio of experience includes Sam’s Club.

‘Roz’ Brewer was the first and only African American woman to lead a Fortune 500 company. And her credentials were stellar.

Walgreens Female CEO Brewer Bows to Red States

Fast forward two years, and Brewer is now the first CEO to bow to the demands of red-state attorneys general that drug store chains like CVS and Walgreens not sell abortion pills under new rules released by the FDA.

The freeze includes several states where abortion remains legal, because red states have informed Walgreens that they will punish the company for selling abortion pills to someone living in a nearby state where abortion is illegal. In some cases, new laws restricting availability of abortion pills are tied up in the courts — and could be for years.

To date the media hasn’t mentioned that they are aware of the fact that it’s a female CEO, who is also a woman of color, who has been the first to agree to accept the demands of red state legislators and executives not to sell abortion pills at Walgreens.

It may be true that she has no choice, given her own expansion and acquisition plans that surely require state approvals. In mid-February the Wall Street Journal headline read: Walgreens CEO Bets on Doctors Over Drugstores in Search for Growth.

One assumes that all of Brewer’s acquisitions [note that she is not alone in this emerging drug stores supporting expanded healthcare facilities strategy] require state approvals, as Walgreens gets into the healthcare and clinics business.

On the face of it, if her focus is no longer drug stores, her CEO job description almost demands that she ignore the anguish expressed by American women as red state legislators and conservative judges seek to totally end abortion in America.

Walgreens CEO Brewster’s Bowing to Red States on Abortion Pills Could Backfire

However, Brewer is also eyeing Medicare Advantage plans as her source of new and significantly more stable Walgreens income. And her own big payday. Is she assuming that the Biden Administration won’t find ways to penalize Walgreens for so easily and quickly cutting off access to abortion pills to American women desperate to find them?

What happens if CVS decides not to honor the red states demands and fights for women’s access to abortion care in states where it remains legal, even if it is tied up in the courts?

Brewer can’t possibly believe that her Medicare Advantage Plan grandmothers won’t penalize Walgreens and favor CVS, if the larger and more profitable CVS decides to at least fight for their granddaughters’ access to abortion pills.

CVS revenue is an estimated $104.57 billion in March, 2023 compared to $30.5 billion for Walgreens.

Will Walgreens Also Discontinue Birth Control If Red States Demand It?

The right-wingers are leaving no doubt that they intend to end birth control in America. Would Brewer agree also to stop dispensing birth control pills at Walgreens if red states demand it? Flying solo out of the gate on this issue may be bold, but it could backfire big-time.

This is a very complicated issue and one assumes that on a topic this complicated, the biggest industry players have conferred with each other. The car companies have been known to take a joint position on a complicated issue.

To be clear, women and men who support abortion rights may have no short-term recourse on our abortion access in America. But we are watching what happens among the corporate players.

If CVS doesn’t bow, they will have millions of cheerleaders supporting them — including Anne of Carversville. One thing we know for certain is that silence was the best policy for Walgreens when competitors are not issuing statements.

Being the first to bow to red states with no attempt to create a strategy for women customers in a company lead by a Black woman is not impressive at all. And we won’t forget it.

No one I know wants to publicly drag a Black woman Fortune 500 CEO through the mud. But we won’t forget this move either. It smacks of total appeasement right out of the gate.