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.
More “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 repr.
