Some US states stock abortion medications after court ruling

BOSTON — A growing number of states led by Democratic governors are stockpiling doses of drugs used in medication abortions, amid fears that a court ruling could restrict access to the most commonly used method of abortion in the U.S.

Massachusetts has purchased enough doses of the drug mifepristone — one of two drugs used in combination to end pregnancies — to last for more than a year, Democratic Gov. Maura Healey said Monday. California has secured an emergency stockpile of up to 2 million pills of misoprostol, the other drug used in abortion medication, Gov. Newsom, also a Democrat, announced.

And in Washington state, Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee announced last week that the state purchased 30,000 doses of the generic version of mifepristone — which he said is enough to last the state’s residents three years. The shipment arrived in late March.

“Abortion is still legal and accessible here in California and we won’t stand by as fundamental freedoms are stripped away,” Newsom said Friday.

The actions come as U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee in Amarillo, Texas, overruled decades of scientific approval Friday and put on hold federal approval of mifepristone.

The judge stayed his ruling for a week so federal authorities could file a challenge.

The Biden administration slammed the ruling and on Monday appealed the decision, saying it would thwart the U.S. Food and Drug administration’s scientific judgment and “severely harm women, particularly those for whom mifepristone is a medical or practical necessity.”

Adding to the confusion was a second opinion also released on Friday by District Judge Thomas O. Rice, an Obama appointee, directing U.S. authorities not to make any changes that would restrict access to the drug in at least 17 states where Democrats sued in an effort to protect availability.

Healey said the Kacsmaryk ruling threatens access to the medication even in states supportive of abortion rights like Massachusetts.