[Federalist] Normally, drug dealers go to jail. But in Washington, the state’s own Department of Corrections (DOC) could become the cheapest dealer on the block. Its poison of choice? Deadly chemical abortion pills. In February, the Washington state legislature approved legislation that would allow its DOC to sell its stockpile of abortion pills below cost, and last week, the state’s House speaker signed the legislation — Democrat Gov. Bob Ferguson is soon expected to sign the bill into law.
If enacted, the legislation would let the DOC essentially give away its abortion pills (more than 155,000 doses worth) at as low a price it wants, setting it up to become what one Republican state senator described as the "free-abortion-pill provider for the entire country."
FORMER GOVERNOR’S PURCHASES
Why exactly does a state department of corrections, an office most known for overseeing prisons, have a 155,000-dose stockpile of abortion drugs?
It all started in 2023 when former Gov. Jay Inslee, worried that pending litigation could make abortion pills harder to obtain, ordered the DOC to use its pharmacy license to buy 30,000 doses of mifepristone, a common abortion pill. As he was leaving office, he ordered the DOC to purchase 17,600 more doses of mifepristone, along with 155,000 doses of misoprostol, another common abortion drug. In total, the purchases cost the state about $2 million.