MassLive | Medication abortion ruling: Gov. Healey unveils plan to protect mifepristone in Mass.

By Alison Kuznitz
Story Originally Appeared in MassLive

Gov. Maura Healey and other top female elected officials fiercely vowed Monday to protect medication abortion in Massachusetts, following conflicting court rulings that could soon upend the use of mifepristone for pregnant people across the country.

Healey, also flanked by reproductive care advocates outside the State House, announced her new executive order to protect patients and providers from accessing mifepristone — building upon the commonwealth’s shield law from last summer to strengthen abortion protections in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst has purchased about 15,000 doses of mifepristone to ensure the commonwealth’s stockpile of the endangered abortion medication for one year, with administration officials expecting the shipment to arrive later this week.

“So I just want to be clear with the people in Massachusetts: Medication abortion will remain safe, legal and accessible here in the commonwealth,” Healey said at the State House press conference.

Healey announced her administration will allocate $1 million to support certain providers in accessing mifepristone. It’s unclear how the influx of abortion pills will be distributed.

In a tweet Friday evening, Healey promised Bay Staters that mifepristone — one of two drugs used to induce abortions or to help with miscarriage management — “will stay available in Massachusetts.”

Her statement came shortly after a Texas judge known for his anti-abortion beliefs, Matthew Kacsmaryk, halted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, which was vetted more than two decades ago. Kacsmaryk gave a week for his ruling to take effect, providing time for the federal government to appeal the decision.

But also on Friday, a Washington state judge ruled to maintain the status quo and not restrict medication abortion access — which could shield 17 states and Washington, D.C. involved in a lawsuit seeking to broaden availability of the non-surgical option used through the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.

“Clearly Dobbs wasn’t enough, and what you saw is a continuing step in their endless crusade to undermine medical and scientific research and expertise to further marginalize, particularly women in this country, and to take us backwards,” Healey said Monday of the anti-abortion movement. “And their latest crusade took them to a single federal court judge in Amarillo, Texas, handpicked by Donald Trump, who has a history of making decisions — radical decisions — to restrict women’s freedom.”

Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling last summer to overturn Roe v. Wade, abortion remains legal in Massachusetts.

Former Gov. Charlie Baker last July signed a bill to strengthen abortion protections for providers and patients, including those who travel to Massachusetts for care from states where the procedure is now banned or severely restricted. The bill affirms the right to gender-affirming care in Massachusetts, as lawmakers are wary the Supreme Court could soon strip away LGBTQ protections, too.

Under Healey’s executive order, medication abortion is now explicitly protected within the shield law, meaning providers, pharmacists and patients “do not have to worry about civil or criminal liability, or fear that they’re going to have issues with respect to their licensure, insurance coverage and the like,” the governor told reporters.

Healey said she’s not concerned about lawsuits connected to her executive order, including if providers were to dispense mifepristone should it lose its FDA approval.

“This place, this is the foundation of our country’s democracy,” Healey said. “If you come here to mess with our rights or our freedoms, we’re going to take you on. We’re certainly not going to stand for that.”

Rebecca Hart Holder, executive director of Boston-based Reproductive Equity Now, said Kacsymryk’s ruling “has no basis in science, medicine, or justice.”

Nearly half of abortions in Massachusetts, as well as nationally, are medication abortions, according to the advocacy group. And mifepristone has been used more than 4 million times since it gained FDA approval in 2000.

“This ruling is a results-driven legal charade, and it is all part of an extremist mission to ban abortion in all 50 states,” Hart Holder said at the press conference. “We should expect to see many more abortion rights challenges in his (Kacsmaryk’s) court, specifically because he is their green light for a nationwide abortion ban.”

Attorney General Andrea Campbell urged people with questions about medication abortion to contact the state’s confidential legal abortion hotline at 833-309-6301. She warned the Texas ruling could unravel other civil rights in the United States.

“If they can eliminate that right in the face of significant precedent, all civil rights are under threat. Everyone should care,” Campbell said.

Senate President Karen Spilka signaled she will continue to work in partnership with House Speaker Ron Mariano to further protect abortion rights in Massachusetts.

Spilka equated the mifepristone ruling to tyranny, as she decried how a single antidemocratic ruling could affect millions of pregnant people and families. And Mariano, echoing comments from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, urged people to vote to restore people’s right to physical autonomy.

“This is not how America is supposed to work. This is not our values and beliefs,” Spilka said. “We will stand together and continue to engage in this fight for justice as long as we have to.”