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Healey says Mass. will hold on to abortion medication stockpile, pointing to ‘continued attacks’ on reproductive care

Gov. Maura Healey said the state will keep its almost $700,000 supply of out of concern for future attacks on abortion, including from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Allen G. Breed

By Emily Spatz

2 minutes to read

Governor Maura Healey said the state will hold on to its stockpile of the abortion medication mifepristone, pointing to “continued attacks on reproductive health care” even after a Supreme Court ruling last week preserved access to the medication. 

Healey indicated that the state will keep the approximately 15,000 doses it has had on hand for over a year in an interview with WBUR Tuesday.

“We’ll hold on to it for now,” she said on Radio Boston. “So much is under attack right now. It’s something that Donald Trump is fully behind and running on and supporting. They want to take away access to abortion, access to medication abortion, access to contraception, access to IVF. This is the Republican playbook right now.”

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Karissa Hand, a spokesperson for the governor, confirmed the state’s intentions to keep the medication. Healey’s administration has previously said it has about a year’s supply.

“With continued attacks on reproductive health care and the threat of another Donald Trump presidency, we will continue to keep the mifepristone stockpile to ensure we are prepared to protect access if there are further efforts to restrict medication abortion,” Hand said in a statement to Boston.com.

State bought the stockpile for almost $700,000 last April

Healey’s administration ordered the doses be bought in April 2023 in light of several legal challenges to the medication’s use. At the time, a federal judge in Texas halted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of mifepristone, threatening its availability in states even where abortion is legal. 

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The challenge was partially in response to several years of the FDA loosening regulations for obtaining the pill, including making it available at more mail-order and large chain pharmacies. In March, CVS and Walgreens announced plans to start dispensing the medication in several states, including Massachusetts.

Mifepristone was first approved by the FDA in 2000. It is used together with a medicine called misoprostol to end pregnancy through 10 weeks of gestation, and for other purposes like miscarriage management and treating lupus. 

“Mifepristone is safe and effective. It’s been the gold standard for over two decades,” Healey said in a statement in 2023. “We’re keeping it available in Massachusetts — no matter what some extremist, Trump-appointed judge in Texas says.”

Supreme Court ruled last week to preserve access to the drug

Last week, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling preserving access to the medication, which is used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. Justices said that the plaintiffs who brought the case — who were identified in the Supreme Court decision as “several pro-life doctors and associations” — did not have the legal standing to challenge the FDA’s approval of the drug.

Healey said Tuesday that the decision was a “no brainer,” but that the grounds on which the Justices ruled to keep the drug accessible were concerning.

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“[The decision] doesn’t give any comfort at all — it simply said that these particular folks weren’t allowed to be in court. But maybe other parties could be in court challenging medication abortion,” Healey said. 

Healey added that she is “worried” about future rulings that may restrict abortion, noting that some people have already come into the state to access the procedure.

The 15,000 doses of mifepristone cost the state about $675,000, according to The Boston Globe. The stockpile has remained untouched since it was purchased last year.

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