OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington state's move to become the first in the nation to stockpile abortion pills provides insurance against future lawsuits seeking a nationwide ban on the procedure and Republican Donald Trump's reelection as president, Gov. Jay Inslee said.
Last year, following a federal lawsuit seeking to limit access to abortion pills across the country, Democratic Gov. Inslee ordered the state Department of Corrections to use its pharmacy license to purchase 30,000 doses of the abortion pill mifepristone.
The US Supreme Court rejected the challenge in June, leaving mifepristone on the market, but the decision leaves the door open for further litigation and abortion rights advocates warn the drug remains dangerous.
In an interview with Reuters, Governor Inslee, 73, said the state would maintain its stockpile until President Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris win the Nov. 5 presidential election.
“The Supreme Court's decision is not a definitive protection for mifepristone,” Inslee told Reuters at the Governor's Mansion in Olympia. “This is a long-term threat. Those who are trying to take away women's reproductive health are not going to stop last week, this week or next week. This is a decades-long effort.”
President Trump has taken a sometimes ambiguous stance on abortion, including mifepristone, which is commonly prescribed as part of a two-drug combination therapy to end early pregnancies.
The former president suggested in August that he could instruct the Food and Drug Administration to revoke access to the drug if he won the election, but his campaign later said he would not do so.
President Trump has touted his role in appointing three Supreme Court justices who helped drive the court's 2022 majority decision to repeal abortion rights nationwide for the first time in 50 years.
“He cannot be trusted when it comes to women's reproductive health,” said Inslee, who is leaving office in January after 12 years in office.
That amount is enough to supply the state's abortion patients for an estimated three years.
Washington state has seen an increase in the number of out-of-state women traveling to the state for abortions since a 2022 Supreme Court ruling led many states, including neighboring Idaho, to implement abortion bans.
Harris and other Democrats have made abortion a central campaign issue this year.
A majority of Americans believe abortion should be legal in most or all circumstances, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
