4 highlights from Acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing

2.  Woman forced to take an abortion pill appears as a guest at the hearing 

Britt pivoted from talking about Graham to sharing her concerns about the federal government’s policies governing the distribution of the abortion pill by stating “One of the things that he was a champion of was the unborn.” She identified protecting the unborn as “a deeply held conviction that we both have.”

After explaining how the Biden administration eliminated the in-person dispensing requirement for the abortion pill, Britt insisted that “We are losing children and we are putting women in harm’s way.” She detailed how Jona Affholder, who was in attendance at the hearing, had a “crushed abortion pill” forced into her mouth in the middle of the night by her former boyfriend who also took her keys and prevented her from accessing help. “This is sick and twisted and must stop,” Britt proclaimed. 

“He used his ex-wife’s information to buy those drugs online to kill his own child and to endanger Jona’s life,” Britt added, before indicating that Affholder’s experience was not an isolated incident. 

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., brought up the case of Rosalie Markovich, whose boyfriend inserted the abortion pill into her drink without her consent, which caused her to have a miscarriage. Hawley asked Blanche if he had thought about spearheading “an initiative that might bring resources from the Criminal Division and the Civil Division and the U.S. Attorneys together” that would “work with states to go after these coerced abortions.” 

“I very much commit to looking at that,” he said. “A lot of that is not necessarily a federal crime but the federal government can certainly help in that space.”