State lawmakers are stockpiling abortion medication, as they face what could be the most significant setback for reproductive rights since Roe v. Wade was overruled.
(Bloomberg) — State lawmakers are stockpiling abortion medication, as they face what could be the most significant setback for reproductive rights since Roe v. Wade was overruled.
On Monday — just days after two federal judges made conflicting rulings over the legality of mifepristone — Massachusetts announced that it would stockpile 15,000 doses of the drug, which is used in medication abortions. Governor Maura Healey directed the University of Massachusetts Amherst last week to purchase the doses, which could arrive as soon as this week, she said at a press conference Monday.
It follows a similar announcement from Washington Governor Jay Inslee, who last week said he would direct the purchase of a three-year supply of the drug. Mike Faulk, a representative for Inslee, said in a Monday email there is nothing in state law that would restrict the continued use of mifepristone based on the Texas ruling, and that a dueling Washington ruling made it “abundantly clear” that mifepristone is lawful to dispense and distribute.
Additionally, California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday said the state had secured a stockpile of up to 2 million pills of misoprostol, a drug that can be taken on its own to induce abortions, but is not affected by US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s decision. (Doctors generally prescribe mifepristone along with misoprostol, a drug used to treat stomach ulcers, that can also induce contractions. On its own, misoprostol has a high efficacy rate in safely ending pregnancies with no further intervention, and when taken together, the two pills have an over 95% efficacy rate.)
Read more: What Is Mifepristone and Why Is It Being Banned in the US?
On Friday, Republican-appointed Kacsmaryk of Texas issued an order suspending the US government’s decades-old approval of mifepristone. That ruling was almost immediately contradicted by Spokane-based Judge Thomas O. Rice, a Democratic-appointed judge in Washington state, who granted a request from 17 states and Washington D.C. to affirm the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone and block the government from restricting access.
The Biden administration is asking Rice to clarify how the government can comply with his order preserving access to the abortion pill in the face of the conflicting rulings. The competing orders signal the issue is almost certainly bound for the US Supreme Court, a year after the high court’s conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade.
The unprecedented nature of the Texas decision and the contradictory Washington one bring up questions about whether stockpiled mifepristone can still get into patient’s hands if FDA approval is yanked. But a recent decision lays the groundwork for the possibility.
Earlier this month, when the FDA pulled approval of Makena, a preterm birth treatment, it acknowledged that a limited supply of these drugs has already been distributed, including to doctors offices and pharmacies. “FDA acknowledges that some health care providers might continue to prescribe or administer that limited remaining supply to their patients,” the agency said on its website.
In Washington state, Governor Inslee directed the state Department of Corrections, using its existing pharmacy license, to purchase the mifepristone supply, which was delivered on March 31, according to a statement. State lawmakers have proposed a bill that would allow the department to distribute or sell the medication to licensed health providers across the state. The bill, sponsored by state Senator Karen Keiser and in committee as of Monday morning, is likely to pass given the state’s Democratic trifecta.
“We took the step of procuring a supply of mifepristone for Washington state knowing that both of these court decisions could come out any day, and nothing in the decisions alters our plan,” Keiser said in an email statement on Monday. “This plan has strong and broad support, and I’m confident that, after public input, it will be passed by both chambers and signed into law.”
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