Maryland Gov. Moore: State Stockpiling Abortion Drug

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore promised Sunday that his state will be stockpiling supplies of the abortion drug mifepristone for “upwards of three years” and will lead in being a “state where we are going to protect reproductive health and reproductive rights.”

The Democrat governor, who took office in January, told ABC News’ “This Week” that he’s not only instructed Maryland’s Department of Health to stockpile the drug but that the state legislature is also making moves to protect the right for abortions. 

“We passed three bills that were focusing on things like increasing access, increasing privacy, and also making sure that, when people come to Maryland, they’re not going to be criminalized,” Moore said. “I worked in partnership and supported the legislature’s leadership of the presiding officers to make sure that next year abortion and reproductive rights will be on the ballot in the state of Maryland. So Maryland is going to be the lead on this issue.”

The governor also on Sunday discussed his campaign promise to cut crime in the state and denied that millions being invested in mental and behavioral health programs are a push to defund police departments, as $122 million has been allocated to local law enforcement including $17.5 million in Baltimore alone. 

But still, he said, “you’re not going to militarize your way out with something that is a larger challenge. We have to get these illegal guns off of our streets.”

Record investments have also been made in public education, said Moore, with the programs leading to an “all the above approach in the way that we’re looking at public safety.”

Maryland is also now the first state to offer a service-year option for high school graduates. 

“This is about experimentally learning, and giving young people a chance to learn more about the different options that are available for them to be able to do,” said Moore. “This is going to redefine patriotism in the state of Maryland. When people talk about ‘what does it mean to be a patriot,’ being a patriot means lifting your neighbors up, not tearing them down. And that’s why we’re going to do it.”

The state budget has allocated money to pay the young adults a $3,000 stipend for the year of service, which is being done in partisanship with federal partners, AmeriCorps, and the private sector, said Moore. 

“Watching the level of engagement that we have already seen since the bill’s passage has been phenomenal, and this is going to have a marked and a generational impact on the state of Maryland.”