Pro-Life Group Mocks NY Plan to Destroy Expired Abortion Pills

A pro-life organization has sarcastically applauded the administration of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for its plan to destroy approximately 150,000 doses of misoprostol, an abortion pill that cost taxpayers $112,000 but were never administered.

The New York State Department of Health purchased the stockpile of misoprostol, which is part of a two-drug regimen for medical abortions, in 2023. The agency is now preparing to destroy the pills as they have expired. The stockpile was sufficient for about 12,500 doses.

Shawn Carney, CEO and president of 40 Days for Life, commented on the development, stating, "I think it’s a great victory for the pro-life movement. I think it’s humiliating for all these people who ran out and said there’s going to be more [abortion] than there ever have been." Carney suggested that while Hochul's administration had no choice but to dispose of the expired medication, the fact that these potential abortions did not occur is a positive outcome.

"It’s definitely great for the pro-life movement," Carney added. "I don’t know any other option that she has. I think that the state government and the governors, particularly the Democrats, have spent way too much time trying to promote themselves as abortion pill superstars."

Hochul's administration has not utilized the stockpile, and there are no plans to replenish it, according to the Department of Health. The purchase was made in the context of legal challenges surrounding mifepristone, the other medication commonly used in chemical abortions.

Misoprostol is used to complete a chemical abortion by clearing the uterus after mifepristone has terminated the pregnancy. Reports indicate that medication abortions accounted for nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. in 2023.

Following the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, states like California, Massachusetts, and Oregon also established stockpiles of abortion medications. Carney theorized that reported increases in abortion rates might be inflated by such stockpiled pills that were never used, suggesting, "It’s another sort of note of evidence that the abortion numbers we hear today are completely fabricated by the left because they’re taking into account these stockpiled abortion pills, which, of course, today we get more evidence that they weren’t even used."