Washington state purchases three-year supply of abortion pill

(Reuters) – Washington state’s government said on Tuesday it had purchased a three-year supply of abortion pill mifepristone as a Texas judge mulls a nationwide ban on the medication’s sale.

The state’s Democratic governor directed its Department of Corrections, which has a pharmacy license, to purchase the medication last month, a government statement said.

The full shipment was delivered on March 31, it added.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas could soon order the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reconsider its 22-year-old approval for a pill used in the most common form of abortion in the United States, or order the approval revoked outright.

“Health care should be decided by a patient and their doctor, not a judge in Texas,” Washington Governor Jay Inslee said in a tweet, adding that the purchase ensured “continued access” for all patients in his state.

Legal fights over abortion rights have ramped up in the United States after a Supreme Court ruling last year that overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing the procedure.

(Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Jamie Freed)