The Washington state government in the US has announced that it has stockpiled a large supply of abortion pills in anticipation of a Texas court ruling that could ban access to medical abortion nationwide.

Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee last month asked the state Department of Corrections, which holds the necessary license, to buy 30,000 doses of mifepristone for three years. The tablets arrived in Washington on March 31st.

At the same time, Inslee said that the University of Washington has purchased an additional 10,000 doses of pills, enough for another year.

The governor indicated that Washington is the first state to take this measure, which he called a “back-up policy” in case mifepristone pills are no longer available in the country.

Insley’s office announced that about 800 abortions a month, or 60 percent of abortions in the state, are done with medication. Demand for abortion pills is expected to rise due to restrictions imposed in other states after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its historic ruling in June 2022 that protected women’s right to abortion, government officials estimate.

Meanwhile, Judge Matthew Kaczmarek in Amarillo, Texas, is hearing a lawsuit filed by a group of anti-abortion groups seeking to revoke FDA approval for 22-year-old mifepristone. If this happens, then medical abortions using this drug will not be available anywhere in the country.

Mifepristone was approved in 2000 for use in combination with another drug, misoprostol, to terminate a pregnancy in the first trimester of pregnancy. It is also used for miscarriages and other gynecological diseases.

“The Texas lawsuit poses a clear and present risk to patients and healthcare professionals across the country. “Washington will not sit back and risk the devastating consequences of inaction,” Insley said in a statement. “We are not afraid to take action to protect our rights. “Washington is a state that supports women’s right to choose, and no Texas judge will make us do otherwise,” he added.

“The provision of care should be decided by the patient and their physician, not by a judge in Texas,” he tweeted.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, at least half of abortions in the US are done with pills, not surgery. According to the same source, mifepristone is used in most medical abortions in the US.

Abortion providers across the country are preparing to switch to a different medical abortion protocol based on misoprostol alone. This protocol is not approved by the FDA, but is widely used throughout the world.

Source: APE-MPE, Reuters.