OLYMPIA — The governor's office is considering what to do with Washington state's stockpile of the abortion pill mifepristone in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Thursday that maintained access to the medication.
In April 2023, Gov. Jay Inslee announced the state was stockpiling thousands of doses of the abortion pill as a decision in the case was pending in federal court in Texas.
The medication in the state stockpile expires in about two years, and the governor's office is considering its options, including distribution of the pills, Mike Faulk, a spokesperson for Inslee, said Thursday.
"The ruling is a relief, for now, but it's clear the Supreme Court majority could still come after this safe and proven medication in a future case," he said, adding that it was safe to say the pills would be distributed before their shelf life is up.
In a separate case, Washington and other states are challenging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's existing restrictions on the medication. On the same day that the judge in the Texas case overturned the FDA's approval of mifepristone, a federal judge in Spokane barred the FDA from reducing the availability of the drug in Washington, 16 other states and Washington, D.C.
"Our case already successfully nullified for Washingtonians the radical lower-court ruling in Texas that led to today's Supreme Court decision," Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a statement Thursday. "Attacks on reproductive freedom will continue, but we will continue to fight for the right to access mifepristone in Washington."
Nearly 60% of abortions in Washington are medication abortions.
Thursday's decision drew some relief from Washington abortion advocates and disappointment from Washingtonians who oppose abortion.
U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-WA, described the ruling as "a win for Americans in all states who would have seen their rights infringed on if the Supreme Court had taken away access to this safe, effective medication."
Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky, said that, while the organization was relieved, "the truth is that we should've never gotten to this point."
"From the beginning, this was a politically motivated case that completely disregards years of evidence that mifepristone is safe and effective," Gibron said. "Maintaining access to this FDA-approved medication was the bare minimum."
Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, said the ruling shows that the governor's stockpiling was foolish and premature. "How much money was spent?" he asked. "What are the storage costs?"
Inslee ordered the state's Department of Corrections to purchase 30,000 doses of mifepristone, at a cost of about $1.28 million. UW Medicine also obtained 10,000 doses of the medication at Inslee's request, and the university was reimbursed about $425,000 by the state Department of Health.
Faulk said that according to DOH, it costs "essentially nothing to keep the supply warehoused."
Padden said he was disappointed with the ruling but noted that it addressed the plaintiffs' right to sue rather than delving into claims about the pills' safety. As such, he speculated that the justices left the door open for other lawsuits.
Julie Barrett, president of Conservative Ladies of Washington, who also declared herself disappointed, said she would like to see state lawmakers mount an attempt to enact guardrails against children's access to abortion pills.
But she, like Padden, acknowledged the difficulty of passing anti-abortion legislation in Washington, which legalized abortion three years before Roe vs. Wade.
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