April 5, 2023
Access & Coverage | Tea Leaves
  • 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. Governor Jay Inslee says he ordered the Washington Department of Corrections to use its pharmacy license to buy 30,000 doses of mifepristone. Inslee noted that Washington is the first state to take such an action and called the purchase “an insurance policy” in case the drug becomes unavailable. The pills were received on March 31. (Article here)
  • Judge Janet Protasiewicz was elected Tuesday to fill the open seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, a win that shifts the court’s ideological makeup to the left and makes it more likely that a contested abortion ban could be struck down. The election will have wide-sweeping effects on the state, including, in the nearest term, access to abortion in Wisconsin. The state has an 1840s law on the books that bans abortion in nearly all instances in the state. State Attorney General Josh Kaul has brought a lawsuit challenging that law in state court that is widely expected to land in front of the state Supreme Court. (Articles here and here)