WASHINGTON STATE – Washington earlier this year had to return 30,000 expiring doses from its abortion pill stockpile to the manufacturer.
A state law signed Saturday seeks to ensure remaining pills the state has on hand are easier to access and use. Before Senate Bill 5917, the state needed to sell its mifepristone pills for at least the purchase price, plus an extra $5 fee per dose.
The new law eliminates the requirement for the state to get paid for the medication. It also requires the Department of Corrections to coordinate with the Department of Health to identify recipients for the pills.
“It’s more important than ever to protect access to reproductive health care,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said before signing legislation sponsored by Sen. Jessica Bateman, D-Olympia. Removing the cost barrier, he said, will make it easier for providers to access the state’s stockpile.
Washington Secretary of Health Dennis Worsham wrote to the governor this month, urging him to sign the bill.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, some Republican-led states banned abortion. Mifepristone and misoprostol, the two abortion-inducing drugs, have become key for people to continue accessing the procedure.
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision, then-Gov. Jay Inslee, in 2023, authorized the state’s purchase of 30,000 doses of mifepristone for $1.275 million in case the drug was no longer available due to federal restrictions. But that hasn’t yet become an issue here.
In the same period of time, Ferguson, then the state’s attorney general, led a lawsuit that successfully blocked the federal government from doing anything to reduce the availability of mifepristone in Washington, 16 other states and the District of Columbia. However, the judge in the case later overturned this ruling last July.
Across the country there have been ongoing legal attempts to curtail access to the pills. A Louisiana court case heard recently in federal court threatens Biden-era policy allowing providers to prescribe mifepristone remotely without an in-person visit. And Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, of Missouri, this week announced legislation to undo U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for mifepristone.
But because the pills remain readily available in Washington, they were set to expire at the end of January. Instead of destroying them, the state was able to return them to their manufacturer, according to the Washington State Women’s Commission, which requested the new law.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the state had been refunded the nearly $1.3 million for the pills.
A separate, smaller stockpile of misoprostol that expired in February may have still needed to be destroyed. Advocates hope the new law, which takes effect immediately, will help save another batch expiring at the end of this month.
The state also bought 17,600 doses of mifepristone in early 2025. They don’t expire until late 2028 and early 2029. On that purchase, the supplier agreed to accept unused doses when they expire and exchange them for new pills at no cost to the state.
Most Republicans argue the law signed Saturday is fiscally irresponsible and makes the state an abortion pill distributor. Money from selling the pills goes into the state’s general fund.
During Senate floor debate on the bill last month, senators shared two personal stories with diverging morals.
Sen. Leonard Christian, R-Spokane Valley, recalled his future wife getting an abortion when they were teenagers and his regrets.
Sen. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, told of using misoprostol to manage a miscarriage a few years ago but not being able to find mifepristone, which is supposed to be taken in tandem with the other drug. This meant she had to get surgery.
“I tell this story to illustrate the point that this is about women’s health care, that these are medications that are safe,” Frame said. “They have been approved by the FDA for more than 25 years, and they are still hard to get access to.”
The legislation passed the Legislature mostly along party lines, with Democratic support. In the Senate, it got two Republican votes, from Sens. Paul Harris of Vancouver and Ron Muzzall of Oak Harbor.
It was one of several wins for abortion care advocates this session.
For one, the budget lawmakers approved Thursday restores $8.5 million in funding cut last year to the state’s Abortion Access Project.
And second, lawmakers passed a fee on insurers that would pay for grants to organizations providing abortion services. The tax in Senate Bill 6182 would raise about $10 million in its first year and around $2 million annually after that, according to a fiscal analysis. The bill awaits Ferguson’s signature.
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