Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson (D) signed a bill into law on Saturday enabling the state to distribute abortion pills it had stockpiled after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Earlier this year, the state returned 30,000 expiring doses from its abortion pill stockpile to the manufacturer, The Seattle Times reported. Before Senate Bill 5917 was signed into law, the state was required to sell its mifepristone pills for the purchase price, plus a $5 fee per dose.
The new law scraps the requirement for the state to be paid for the abortion pills, and it also requires the Department of Corrections to work with the Department of Health “to identify recipients for the pills,” according to the report. Proponents of the bill say it should make accessing the remaining pills in the stockpile easier.
“It’s more important than ever to protect access to reproductive health care,” Gov. Bob Ferguson claimed before signing the bill, adding that the bill makes it easier for abortionists to access the state’s stockpile.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 with its Dobbs decision, ending the invented constitutional right to abortion, some Democrat-led states responded by stockpiling mifepristone and misoprostol, two drugs used to cause a medication abortion.
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Former Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) allowed the state to buy 30,000 doses of mifepristone in 2023 for $1.275 million. Inslee and other governors at the time said they stockpiled abortion drugs just in case Republicans pass a federal restriction, which has yet to occur.
Since abortion pills are still widely available in Washington, much of the stockpile was set to expire at the end of January, according to the report. The Washington State Women’s Commission, which supports the new law, said the state was able to return the drugs to their manufacturer, although it is unclear if the state of refunded.
“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,” according to the report.
There is another 17,600 doses of mifepristone that the state purchased in early 2025 that do not expire until late 2028 and 2029, the report continues. For that purchase, the supplier agreed to except expired unused doses and exchange them for new pills at no cost to the state.
Republican lawmakers in opposition to the bill said the law is fiscally irresponsible and turns Washington into an abortion drug distributor, according to the report.
“Money from selling the pills goes into the state’s general fund,” the report notes.
The Democrat-led bill largely passed along party lines, with two Republican, Sens. Paul Harris of Vancouver and Ron Muzzall of Oak Harbor, joining Democrats in support of the bill.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
