GOP leaders demand Trump admin take action on cross-state abortion pill mailings, safety risk: ‘This is going to be a political problem’

Republican senators and state attorneys general delivered a stark message to the Trump administration Wednesday: crack down on abortion pills being mailed across state lines or face political backlash from the pro-life movement. 

The press conference appeared to be one of the sharpest rebukes yet from pro-life leaders frustrated by the administration’s slow safety review on abortion drugs and inaction on Biden-era rules allowing the drugs to be shipped by mail, even to states that have implemented pro-life protections. The leaders said the Biden-era rules, still in effect, are “undermining state laws, endangering women, and violating federal law.” 

“The message here today is really to drive home the issue of the states,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, who led the press conference. “And this is coming from conservative states. States that should be aligned with this administration. And if there are those that don’t care about the life issue, they should care about the politics of this. This is going to be a political problem for those who have sold out the pro-life movement.” 

It’s predominantly Republican states that have pro-life laws, Perkins said. “They’re  

the ones that are being undermined by this Republican administration and this policy, and it does need to change.” 

The press conference, which followed a congressional hearing on the topic, called on the Food and Drug Administration to “immediately suspend” access to abortion pills while it conducts a safety risk evaluation of the drugs, and urged the Justice Department and Health and Human Services Department to end the policies allowing doctors to ship the drugs across state lines. 

Chemical abortions, which require taking a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, account for about two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. When Former President Joe Biden removed the in-person dispensing requirement and allowed the pills to be sent across state lines, pro-life states argued it effectively nullified their laws and harmed women in their states. 

“This dangerous drug has caused serious adverse complications in nearly 11% of pregnant moms who use it, and it enables abusers, who have given it to pregnant moms without their consent,” the group of pro-life senators and attorneys general said ahead of the conference. 

“They’re trying to pretend … that this is no different than Tylenol,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, who is also a medical doctor, said. “Aside from the child that dies, there’s a risk of complications on the mother’s part, complications that can be severe,” he said, noting that women, without direct doctor supervision, are taking the pills 20 weeks into their pregnancies, when they’re not supposed to be taken after week 10. 

“As a doctor, I think it’s essential that there be human contact before the pill is prescribed, that the doctor has a chance to speak to the woman, and make sure she understands that this is an abortion, she’s going to lose her child,” he said, adding that doctors should also ensure the mother is not being coerced. 

Sen. James Lankford also challenged the “myth” of abortion drugs being as safe as Tylenol, arguing there was an “8,000% higher risk” of ending up in the emergency room from using mifepristone according to the label than there is of needing emergency treatment for using Tylenol. 

“We are challenging HHS and we’re challenging the administration to do what the administration did during their first term. That was to say, you’ve got to have a doctor’s appointment to be able to get access to this drug,” Lankford said. “We’re challenging HHS and FDA to live up to our values. And if we’re going to have the ability for states to make decisions, which is what the Supreme Court has said, allow the states to be able to make the decisions from there to be able to honor and value every single child.” 

Sen. Lindsey Graham argued there’s a contradiction at play when the federal government leaves abortion issues to the states but then allows drugs to be shipped into states that have enacted pro-life laws. 

“The federal government is allowing a chemical abortion pill to be sent through the mail that wipes out every state unborn protection law in the land,” he said. “You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say it should be a state issue and sit on the sidelines while the federal government through an agency is sending the pill that undercuts everything people at the state have worked for.” 

Graham said the issue would be fixed by repealing Biden’s policy changes and going back to the policy under the first Trump administration.  

“So get on with it here,” he said. “The pro-life community is not asking too much of Republican administrations in Congress to repeal the Biden policy,” he said, adding that while President Donald Trump has been a “great pro-life president,” it is “now time to deal with this issue.” 

The Lion reached out to the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services for comment. 

Image credit: Tony Perkins (x.com)