SENATE BILL REPORT
SB 5917
As of January 20, 2026
Title: An act relating to improving access to abortion medications.
Brief Description: Improving access to abortion medications.
Sponsors: Senators Bateman, Frame, Alvarado, Cleveland, Conway, Hasegawa, Liias, Nobles, Orwall, Pedersen, Saldaña, Salomon, Stanford, Valdez and Wilson, C.; by request of Women's Commission.
Brief History:
Committee Activity: Human Services: 1/21/26.
Brief Summary of Bill
  • Removes the requirement that the Department of Corrections (DOC) sell the abortion medications it possesses at a certain cost but instead allows, but does not require, DOC to obtain payment for any abortion medications it distributes.
  • Modifies the definition of abortion medications for these purposes to specifically include misoprostol.
SENATE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Staff: Will Trondsen (786-7552)
Background:

Washington State Department of Corrections. The Department of Corrections (DOC) provides medically necessary health and mental health care to incarcerated individuals at all DOC facilities in the state of Washington. Pharmacy services are provided from a DOC centralized pharmacy located in Centralia and prescription drugs are shipped to facilities across the state.DOC is authorized to acquire, receive, possess, sell, resell, deliver, dispense, distribute, and engage in any activity constituting the practice of pharmacy or wholesale distribution with respect to abortion medications.

 

DOC may exercise its authority for the benefit of any person, whether they are incarcerated or not. When DOC is selling, delivering, or distributing abortion medications to health care providers or health care entities, it may only do so with providers and entities that will use the medications for providing abortion care or medical management of early pregnancy loss. In 2023, DOC purchased 30,000 doses of mifepristone, and in 2025, DOC purchased an additional 17,600 doses of mifepristone and 155,000 doses of misoprostol.  

 

Any abortion medications sold, resold, delivered, dispensed, or distributed whether individually or wholesale must be conducted at a cost that does not exceed list price, with an additional $5 per dose fee to offset the cost of storage and delivery. All revenue generated must be deposited into the general fund.

 

Abortion medications is defined to mean substances used in the course of medical treatment intended to induce the termination of a pregnancy including but not limited to, mifepristone. 

 

Mifepristone and Misoprostol. Mifeprex, and its generic, mifepristone, are approved, in a regimen with misoprostol, to end an intrauterine pregnancy through ten weeks gestation. The Food and Drug Administration first approved mifeprex in 2000, and approved the generic version, mifepristone, in 2019. Misoprostol has many uses, including to reduce stomach acid and protect the stomach lining.
Summary of Bill:

The ability of DOC to sell, distribute, or deliver abortion medications to health care providers and health care entities that will use the medications for providing reproductive health care, which includes abortion care or medical management of early pregnancy loss, is expanded.

 

DOC must coordinate with the Department of Health to identify appropriate recipients of the abortion medications and prioritize bulk distribution to health care providers and health care entities. DOC may, but is not required to obtain any payment for delivering, dispensing, or distributing abortion medications or engaging in any other activity.

 

Language is removed that any abortion medications sold, resold, delivered, dispensed, or distributed individually or wholesale must be at a cost not to exceed list price plus a $5 fee to offset storage and delivery.

 

Abortion medications is defined to also include managing the full spectrum of reproductive health care and the use of misoprostol.
Appropriation: None.
Fiscal Note: Requested on January 13, 2026.
Creates Committee/Commission/Task Force that includes Legislative members: No.
Effective Date: The bill contains an emergency clause and takes effect immediately.