In anticipation of a possible federal court battle over the future of reproductive health, Democratic governors are hoarding abortion drugs.
Mifepristone is the standard since it has been used safely for over 20 years.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey (D) said on Monday that the state had enough mifepristone for a year. According to Healey, 15,000 pills were ordered by the University of Massachusetts Amherst last week and might arrive as early as this week.
Healey also announced that the state would pay $1 million to compensate hospitals and clinics for the medication cost.
Healey said she would not allow one radical judge in Texas to roll back progress on this effective treatment and limit patient access in Massachusetts.
Her declaration mirrors that of Washington State’s Democratic governor, Jay Inslee, who said last week that he had bought a three-year medicine supply.
Inslee declared during a news conference the week before the verdict that Washington would not sit idly by and face the grave repercussions of inactivity.
No court in Texas has the authority to force us to go against Washington’s pro-choice stance.
Misoprostol is the second pill used in the current abortion protocol, and on Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) stated that the state was also stockpiling. Newsom said two million units had been stashed away in case of an emergency.
Newsom stated that although the state still considers mifepristone “essential to the recommended regimen for medication abortion,” it has negotiated and acquired an emergency stockpile of misoprostol in case of an unfavorable verdict.
An alternate pharmaceutical abortion procedure that does not need mifepristone is misoprostol alone, which is still effective and safe but not as efficient.
Mifepristone is one of two medications authorized by the FDA for use in medication abortions, but on Friday, there were two conflicting federal orders about the drug’s continuing availability.
The FDA’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone was temporarily halted by a Texas judge chosen by former president Donald Trump, despite decades of supporting scientific data. The Biden administration has until this coming Friday to file an appeal of Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s finding that the FDA overstepped its jurisdiction in licensing mifepristone.
