OLYMPIA (LifeSiteNews) — Washington Democrat Gov. Bob Ferguson signed legislation on March 14 making it easier for the state to distribute abortion pills from a stockpile established by his predecessor.

The Seattle Times reports that in 2023, former Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee had the state purchase 30,000 doses of the abortion drug mifepristone for $1.275 million, to establish an emergency supply ahead of future national abortion bans or restrictions on manufacturing the pill. Those doses went unused, however, and expired in January, necessitating that they be returned to the manufacturer. But subsequent batches added to the stockpile remained an issue, including a small amount that expired in February and another 17,600 doses slated to expire starting at the end of 2028.

SSB 5917 makes it easier for the government to sell the pills to various distributors throughout the state, by eliminating the requirement that they be sold for at least the purchase price along with an additional $5 fee. What money the state does receive will go to the general fund.

“It’s more important than ever to protect access to reproductive health care,” i.e., the killing of the unborn, Ferguson declared. Republicans have objected to the principle of effectively making the state government a direct distributor of chemical abortions, on both moral and fiscal grounds.

Abortion pills have become arguably the abortion lobby’s most important tool for perpetuating abortion-on-demand and undermining pro-life laws, especially distributing them by mail across state lines, which is extremely difficult for pro-life states to prevent.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s most recent annual report revealed that, almost two years (as of April 2024) after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed direct abortion bans to be enforced for the first time in half a century, the nation’s largest abortion chain still operated almost 600 facilities nationwide, through which it committed 392,715 abortions in the most recent reporting period. According to the Lozier Institute’s Prof. Michael New, that is a “record number of abortions for the organization and represents approximately 40 percent of the abortions performed in the United States.”

Yet the crackdown Inslee and his fellow Democrats foresaw never materialized. During his 2024 campaign, President Donald Trump declared he would not reverse former President Joe Biden’s refusal to enforce federal law against mailing abortion pills across state lines. Pro-lifers were given hope in May 2025 that the White House’s position might change when U.S. Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (another formerly pro-abortion figure who “moderated” during his own presidential bid) promised a “complete review” of the medical risks of abortion pills.

But no conclusions or timetable have since been announced, prompting frustration among pro-lifers, which has only intensified with the federal government’s attempts to quash pro-life lawsuits against the FDA’s permissive abortion pill rules.

As for Washington, the fervently pro-abortion state is also currently considering an amendment to the state constitution that would declare a “right” to both abortion-on-demand and “gender transition” procedures.