OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington has stockpiled thousands of doses of an abortion pill in anticipation of a federal court ruling in Texas that could limit its availability, Gov. Jay Inslee said Tuesday.
Inslee ordered the Department of Corrections, which has a pharmacy license, to buy 30,000 doses of mifepristone last month. UW Medicine also obtained 10,000 doses of the drug. Between the two entities, Inslee said, the state now has about a four-year supply.
In a Tuesday morning news conference, Inslee described the move as “an insurance policy” ahead of the expected federal court ruling that he said could threaten access to abortion medication.
The medication stock-up comes as majority Democrats are advancing bills to reinforce access to abortion in the first legislative session since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.
State lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 5768 to authorize the Department of Corrections to sell or distribute the drug to licensed providers in Washington.
Also Tuesday, Inslee wrote to Idaho Gov. Brad Little, urging him to veto a bill in that state that would make “recruiting, harboring or transporting” minors getting an abortion without parental consent a crime.
Mifepristone blocks a hormone needed for pregnancy, and it causes the fetus to detach from the uterine wall. Mifepristone is typically followed by a second medication, misoprostol, which causes contractions that empty the uterus.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone in 2000 and has reaffirmed its safety. Millions have taken the drug. The coalition of anti-abortion groups that filed the case in federal court in Texas nevertheless claim mifepristone is harmful.
In that lawsuit, the judge could find that the FDA improperly approved mifepristone. That could stop providers and pharmacists from being able to buy the pill, Inslee’s office said.
“This Texas lawsuit is a clear and present danger to patients and providers all across the country,” Inslee said in a statement. “Washington will not sit by idly and risk the devastating consequences of inaction. We are not afraid to take action to protect our rights.”
Julie Barrett, founder of Conservative Ladies of Washington, an advocacy group that opposes abortion, said she did not agree with the use of taxpayer money for the purchase of the medication.
“I think this kind of goes along with what we’ve been seeing since the overturn of Roe last June,” Barrett said, “… this instilling fear in the people of Washington that they are going to lose their access or right to abortion when Washington has taken great measures to protect and advance abortion here.”
In Washington, 59% of 15,358 abortions in 2021 used medication, according to a multistate complaint filed in February in an Eastern Washington federal court by state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, in a separate but related lawsuit arguing the FDA places too many restrictions on mifepristone.
“It’s our view that those restrictions are unlawful and unnecessary,” Ferguson said Tuesday.
Abortion pills also can be discreetly mailed and are sometimes used to get around state bans enacted after the fall of Roe — another reason for their significance to both sides of the abortion debate.
Inslee said Tuesday the order of 30,000 doses of mifepristone cost about $1.28 million.
UW Medicine received its 10,000 pills March 29, according to Sumona DasGupta, director of pharmacy business and strategic development for UW Medicine, which encompasses a medical school and hospital.
Those pills will not be just for UW Medicine patients, but also will serve the state broadly, as will the Department of Corrections supply, according to the stipulations set by legislation should it pass.
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