Whitmer mulls stockpiling abortion pill after conflicting court rulings

Novi — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Tuesday she is exploring options for responding to the uncertainty over the future of mifepristone, a drug used for medication abortions that is at the center of two conflicting federal court orders.

Those options could include stockpiling mifepristone or different types of medication, she said.

“We’re hoping for some clarity,” the Democratic governor said Tuesday during a press conference about road construction.

Michigan voters last year approved a ballot measure that enshrined access to reproductive health care including abortion into the state constitution. Mifepristone is a drug prescribed to terminate a pregnancy during the first ten weeks of gestation. The drug also is used to manage miscarriages.

But a federal judge in Texas last week blocked the Food and Drug Administration's two-decade-old approval of the pill. That ruling coincided with a ruling from another judge in Washington state who order the FDA not to do anything that might affect access to mifepristone.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has called on the FDA to continue to maintain its approval of the drug amid the two conflicting rulings.

More:Michigan residents still have access to abortion pill mifepristone, officials say

Democratic governors in Washington and Massachusetts have begun stockpiling mifepristone, The Hill reported Monday.

“My job will be to ensure that we do everything we can to ensure that the realm of safe alternatives is available,” Whitmer said. “We will continue to explore any way that we can do that, including that (stockpiling mifepristone) as a possibility.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday that the nation's most populous state had secured 2 million pills of misoprostol, another abortion drug that is often administered to women in conjunction with mifepristone.

ckthompson@detroitnews.com