AG nominee tells faith leaders he will take action to restrict abortion drug access

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche is one step closer to confirmation after the Republican Judiciary Committee voted to advance his appointment on a party-line vote on Tuesday, and based on promises he made to faith leaders around the country last week, that means national anti-abortion actions may be one step closer as well.

In a conference call hosted by the White House Faith Office on July 30 with thousands of religious leaders around the country, Blanche said he was committed to achieving policy solutions so that the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision “becomes permanent in every single state.”

A recording of the call was publicly available on YouTube as of Tuesday, posted by Intercessors of America, a religious group in Virginia, but was removed by late Tuesday afternoon.

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Blanche told the participants he is working “hand in hand” with U.S. Health and Human Services, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and President Donald Trump’s White House team to fulfill those goals.

His comments come amid ongoing attempts to restrict access to mifepristone, one of two drugs approved by the FDA to terminate early pregnancies and to treat miscarriages. The state of Louisiana sued the FDA in October seeking to rescind a 2023 rule that allowed mifepristone to be dispensed without a visit to a provider in person. That rule has allowed people in states with abortion bans to order the pills by mail through telehealth visits with providers in states that don’t have bans.

The FDA has said it is conducting a safety review of mifepristone that won’t be ready until at least December.

“If states have said, ‘We are going to protect the unborn and we’re going to protect every life from the moment of conception,’ we’re putting practices and policies in place so that other states and other organizations can’t attack that and they can’t do things like they’re doing with mail-order drugs,” Blanche said on the faith call.

Health care providers who support abortion care have said they intend to keep prescribing misoprostol, the other drug used to end a pregnancy or treat miscarriages, even if mifepristone is restricted.

But anti-abortion activists and others have also called on the Trump administration to enforce the Comstock Act, a long-dormant law passed in 1873 that restricted the mailing of “obscene” materials. The law includes language prohibiting mailing anything “designed, adapted, or intended for preventing conception or producing abortion.” If that law were to be enforced, it could bar access to the mailing of both medications.

Blanche did not mention the Comstock Act in the call, but the administration has been pressured by anti-abortion groups to do more.

Blanche said the process of achieving his goals takes a lot of time, but he assured the faith leaders it will happen.

“We don’t have complete victory yet, but we will have victory, and victory will be soon and it will be permanent,” he said.

Stateline reporter Kelcie Moseley-Morris can be reached at [email protected].