By Mark Tapscott

American military units sink drug boats full of fentanyl and other illegal drugs bound for the U.S., but President Donald Trump has yet to act against the chemical abortion drug mifepristone, despite it being why more unborn children have been aborted since the 2022 Dobbs Supreme Court decision ended nationwide abortion-on-demand.

“This is a decision being driven by the White House. We’ve seen virtually every Biden-era policy reversed like this [snapping fingers]. This policy could be changed overnight, and it should be,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins told reporters Wednesday during a Capitol Hill news conference.

“[E]xtreme measures that have been taken to keep deadly drugs out of this country, and we have state leaders who want to keep a deadly drug out of their states. Maybe if these abortion pills were coming by boat, the administration would change its tactics. It’s time to change this,” Perkins continued.

The issue prompting the news conference that was attended by multiple Republican congressmen, state attorneys general, and pro-life advocates is the explosion since the Dobbs decision in the use of mifepristone to bring about chemical abortions without the necessity of a prior OB/GYN exam, thanks to the easy availability of the drug via the U.S. Postal Service.

Mifepristone could not be used without a prior medical exam as a result of Trump’s actions during his first term in the Oval Office, but his successor, Joe Biden, rescinded the requirement and enabled the surge in use of the drug that is virtually always lethal to the unborn child and is potentially deadly due to medical complications for the mother.

It is illegal to send deadly narcotics through the mail, yet after the Dobbs decision, mifepristone almost overnight became the most frequently used abortion procedure despite growing evidence of significant medical risks associated with its use for mothers.

A dozen states enacted pro-life measures following the Dobbs decision, including requirements concerning direct consultations with qualified doctors, but the Supreme Court said nothing about mail-order access to chemical abortion agents like mifepristone.

Abortion advocates often claim mifepristone is as safe as Tylenol, but Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) begged to differ. “What’s happening right now at the national level is that abortion drugs are being mailed into my state to go around state law to facilitate the death of children in my state,” he lamented.

The Oklahoma Republican further emphasized that “contrary to abortion advocates, this drug is not as safe as Tylenol. Let me make this very clear: If you use mifepristone, according to the label, and use Tylenol according to its label, there is an 8,000% chance, difference, that you will end up in the emergency room … that is an 8,000% higher risk.”

Perkins estimated that as many as 8,000 mifepristone-induced abortions are happening every month. In 2024, an estimated 1,050,660 abortions were carried out in the U.S. health system, with nearly 80,000 of those abortions taking place in the dozen states that approved pro-life reforms following the Dobbs decision, thanks to the mail-order access to mifepristone.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters the basic problem in the mifepristone controversy is “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. 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 that people at the state level have worked for — like in my state.”

In an apparent reference to the Trump administration, Graham added, “So get on with it. You could fix this by going back to the first Trump policy. … Let’s do it. The pro-life community is not asking too much of Republican administrations and Congress to repeal the Biden policy.”

The issue also involves a safety review currently being conducted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that pro-life advocates believe is long overdue for a public report, or at least a public explanation for the delay in announcing results.

Ohio Attorney General David Yost (R) said he encouraged Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a conversation last April “to do a quick and thorough review” of the mifepristone access issue, but nothing has changed since that conversation last year.

“We’re coming up on a year, and I ask you, Secretary Kennedy, to expedite this thing and live up to your promise. If you can’t announce a change, at least give us an update on your process, where is this going, and when will we hear something,” Yost said.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill (R) said her state’s comprehensive pro-life reforms had bipartisan support when they were adopted after the Dobbs decision.

“I would like to emphasize that in Louisiana this issue is bipartisan. Our laws were overwhelmingly voted and adopted and led by bipartisan coalitions, and frequently by female Democrats who lead on this issue because they are devoted to protecting life, protecting women in all the ways, and supporting their choice to be able to have their babies and not be coerced into having abortions,” Murrill told reporters.

The Washington Stand requested comment from the White House media office, but none was received as of press time.

Mark Tapscott is senior congressional analyst at The Washington Stand.