Republicans urge Trump to crack down on shipment of abortion drugs across state lines

Republican leaders and state attorneys general called on the Trump administration to crack down on the shipment of abortion drugs across state lines, expressing frustration with the speed of a safety review and the remaining Biden-era mail-order abortion pill policy that they contend subverts state laws.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins joined the Louisiana and Ohio state attorneys general, as well as multiple Republican senators and congress members, in issuing a warning about abortion drugs during a press conference on Wednesday.

During the press conference, which followed a Senate health committee hearing on the same topic, Perkins and the other speakers urged the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to end mail-order abortions. 

Perkins expressed frustration over the FDA’s promised safety review of the abortion drug mifepristone, saying that the review has “dragged on for months.”

“The time for bureaucratic delay is over. It's time to respect the rights of states to protect the unborn,” Perkins declared.

Last month, several pro-life leaders called for the firing of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary following a Bloomberg report that said Makary told agency officials to put it off until after the midterm elections. In addition to the delay, pro-life leaders condemned the FDA for approving a generic form of mifepristone when the agency promised to conduct a safety review. They contend that the FDA's loosened rules enable residents to defy abortion restrictions enacted in several states in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022. 

Among speakers at the press conference was Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, who sued the FDA in October 2025 to challenge rules removing a prohibition against abortion pills being dispensed through the mail. On Tuesday, Murrill's office requested the extradition of a California doctor charged with providing abortion pills to a Louisiana resident. Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected that request. 

"[The Biden administration] reduced [FDA] protocols to take away an in-person physician requirement, dispensing requirement, and then they did that specifically with the avowed purpose of facilitating and encouraging people to send those pills by mail, even to states where it is illegal," Murrill said.

"And so what they did was violate federal law with the purpose of facilitating people to come out and violate our state laws because they disagree with the political preferences that our state elected to enact through our duly elected representatives and our legislature on the issue of abortion. And I would I would like to emphasize that in Louisiana, this is a bipartisan issue."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., stated that the federal government cannot claim that abortion is an issue that should be left to the states but still allow chemical abortion drugs to be shipped into states that have banned or severely restricted abortion.

“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,” Graham 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 that one way to resolve the issue is to return to the safety standards in place during the first Trump administration, such as requiring an in-person doctor visit before one could obtain abortion drugs.

“The pro-life community is not asking too much of Republican administrations in Congress to repeal the Biden policy. I think that's why we got elected,” he said. “So, it's time now, folks, to repeal the Biden policy, a Biden policy that undercuts the states' rights approach.”

“Because the Biden policy would allow the abortion pill to be sent through the mail, regardless of what the state law is, effectively destroying every pro-life law in the country at the state level. We can simply fix this if we have the courage to do it,” Graham stated.

During an interview with The Christian Post after the press conference, Perkins said that he believes the Trump administration thinks the abortion issue is a "liability."

“I think this administration thinks it's a political liability. And they have it backwards,” Perkins told CP. “It's a political liability to continue to uphold a Biden-era policy that undermines the pro-life laws of states.” 

Advocates have repeatedly expressed concern about the safety of abortion drugs, not only because they end the lives of the unborn, but also because women who take them can experience severe adverse side effects. 

According to a report published earlier this year by the Restoration of America Foundation, more than one in 10 women who use chemical abortion drugs experience an adverse event. The report also said that abortion drugs mailed to women are 22 times more dangerous than what the FDA discloses to patients.

Other studies have reportedly found that abortion drugs were associated with higher rates of severe or critical emergency room visits compared to surgical abortions and live births.

Several women have also come forward with stories of their partners forcing them to consume abortion drugs that they had obtained online or through the mail.