BY MELISSA PATRICK

Kentucky Health News

Attorney General Daniel Cameron joined a coalition of 20 Republican attorneys general in sending a letter to Walgreens and CVS saying their plans to distribute abortion pills through the mail are unlawful.

“Having failed to halt the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Biden Administration is now promoting its abortion priorities by misinterpreting federal laws that clearly prohibit distributing abortion drugs by mail,” Cameron said in a news release.

The coalition says federal law prohibits anyone from using the mail to send or receive any drug that will “be used or applied for producing abortion,” referring to the Comstock Act of 1873.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a legal opinion finding that mailing abortion drugs does not violate the Comstock Act and said the Postal Service is legally allowed to deliver prescription abortion pills to people in states that have strict bans on abortions, like Kentucky currently does.

The opinion said the Comstock Act “does not prohibit the mailing of certain drugs that can be used to perform abortions where the sender lacks the intent that the recipient of the drugs will use them unlawfully.” It added, “Because there are manifold ways in which recipients in every state may lawfully use such drugs, including to produce an abortion, the mere mailing of such drugs to a particular jurisdiction is an insufficient basis for concluding that the sender intends them to be used unlawfully.”

After the legal opinion was issued, CVS and Walgreens announced plans to sell abortion pills through the mail.

In their letter, the attorneys general informed CVS and Walgreens that the Biden Administration has misinterpreted federal law.

Cameron signed the letter with attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.