SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday that California will stockpile an emergency supply of 2 million abortion pills known as misoprostol in response to a federal judge in Texas ruling against the authorization of another medication that has been used to terminate pregnancies for decades.
“In response to this extremist ban on a medication abortion drug, our state has secured a stockpile of an alternative medication abortion drug to ensure that Californians continue to have access to safe reproductive health treatments,” Newsom said in a statement. “We will not cave to extremists who are trying to outlaw these critical abortion services. Medication abortion remains legal in California.”
The announcement follows U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s ruling Friday that aims to nullify the federal Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, an abortion medication that has helped millions of women to medically end their early pregnancies.
Newsom said the judge’s decision “ignores facts, science, and the law” in a way that puts “the health of millions of women and girls at risk.”
“Abortion is still legal and accessible here in California and we won’t stand by as fundamental freedoms are stripped away,” he said.
Mifepristone is used in conjunction with misoprostol as a common abortion option for women in the United States, and research has shown the regimen is safe and effective. The two-pill procedure can be substituted by a misoprostol-only option, though that can be a less effective alternative.
While the two-pill procedure is still preferred, Newsom’s office acknowledged, the state is in the process of purchasing up to 2 million misoprostol pills as the currently available back-up option to keep abortion easily accessible in California. More than 250,000 pills have arrived in the state, according to a Newsom administration statement announcing the deal.
Meanwhile, another federal judge in Washington issued a separate ruling Friday that ordered the FDA not to make any changes to the availability of mifepristone, setting up a legal battle expected to reach the US. Supreme Court.
Biden administration seeks emergency
The Biden administration asked a federal appeals court to suspend a ruling by Kacsmaryk.
Lawyers for the government argue that the “extraordinary and unprecedented” ruling upends the status quo and should be blocked while they pursue a full appeal of the case. They asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to issue an emergency order by Thursday afternoon.
“If allowed to take effect, the court’s order would thwart FDA’s scientific judgment and severely harm women, particularly those for whom mifepristone is a medical or practical necessity,” lawyers for the government wrote in the filing Monday, referring to the Texas federal judge’s ruling against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decades-old approval of the abortion medication. “This harm would be felt throughout the country, given that mifepristone has lawful uses in every state.”
Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
