(LifeSiteNews) — In a private call recorded and posted online by the prayer group Intercessors for America last week, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche assured Christian leaders that he is “preparing to take action to roll back abortion access nationwide,” according to Politico. (The recording, which was uploaded to YouTube, has since been deleted.)
Pro-life leaders have been frustrated at the Trump administration’s inaction and, in some cases, obstruction of essential policy requests, including the restoration of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) in-person requirement for the dispending of abortion pills, which was repealed by Joe Biden under the pretext of COVID. The abortion rate has gone up since Roe v. Wade was overturned due to abortion pills being shipped from pro-abortion states into pro-life states.
Blanche, whose nomination to attorney general will be proceeding to the Senate for a full vote, assured Christian leaders that the Justice Department is “working hand in hand” with federal health agencies “so that the Dobbs decision becomes permanent in every single state.” Currently, pro-life states cannot enforce their laws due to mail-order abortion pills pouring over their borders, sent by providers who are often protected by “shield laws” that prevent their extradition for law-breaking.
Blanche referenced the frustrations, noting that the process is “taking longer than we want” and that “we don’t have complete victory yet,” but assured those on the call that “we will have victory, and victory will be soon, and it will be permanent.” According to Politico:
In addition to those broad pronouncements, Blanche appeared to suggest specific restrictions were coming on telehealth prescription and mail delivery of abortion pills, saying the administration is “putting practices and policies in place” to stop shipment of the medications to states where they are banned.
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“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,” Blanche emphasized. “They can’t do things like they’re doing with mailing in mail-order drugs.”
Blanche stated that this practice must be ended. Trump has promised to keep the abortion pill available, but the position of the administration is also that abortion laws should be decided on a state-by-state basis. When the DOJ was asked to explain his comments, they stated that he was referring to “mail order abortion drugs,” implying that his comments were not about FDA approval of the abortion pill itself.
Politico noted that the Biden DOJ stated in 2022 that doctors could not face charges for mailing abortion pills under the Comstock Act, and the Trump administration has not negated this legal position; in 2024, Trump “angered anti-abortion groups by vowing not to use the Comstock Act to restrict access to abortion pills and arguing that ‘the federal government should have nothing to do with this issue.’” Of course, the simplest way to stop mail-order abortion drugs would be to reinstate the FDA requirement for in-person dispending of abortion drugs, something that pro-life leaders have been asking for consistently.
The relationship between pro-life leaders and the White House has grown increasingly tense, and Vice President JD Vance has attempted to assuage concerns in both a speech to the March for Life in January (during which he addressed concerns directly) as well as in recent interviews about his new memoir. Blanche was clearly eager to affirm to Christian leaders that he was onside, referring to himself as a “preacher’s kid.” The call was not intended to be released publicly, but the DOJ has not contradicted any of the statements that Blanche has made.
