(LifeSiteNews) — The Trump administration was in court yet again Friday seeking to dismiss more state challenges to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) relaxation of abortion pill rules, insisting pro-life states wait indefinitely for the administration to decide for itself whether to change the rules rather than force it to enforce existing federal law.
Numerous states are suing the federal government over its Biden-era removal of the requirement that abortion drugs be dispensed in-person. The change, which opened the pills to being prescribed over the internet and distributed by mail, drastically expanded their usage, encroached on state law, and put women at risk, according to the lawsuits.
On Friday, March 13, the Trump Department of Justice filed a motion with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas seeking either a stay or dismissal of yet another set of state challenges, this time from Florida and Texas. It comes a week after filing a similar motion against Idaho, Kansas, and Missouri; and two months after filing against Louisiana.
All the motions are substantially similar, arguing that the FDA should be left alone to complete its long-promised review of abortion pill safety data and then decide whether and/or how to change the current rules. The administration argues that injunctions sought by the pro-life states would “short-circuit” this review and potentially “sow administrative and judicial chaos” as multiple courts award conflicting forms of relief. It also claims the states lack standing and “suffer no sovereign injury because they remain free to make and enforce their pro-life policies.”
“It’s a disgrace that pro-life states like Florida and Texas are having to fight the Trump-Vance administration in court to uphold their laws and that extremists like Gavin Newsom are being allowed to dictate their policy. The Trump-Vance DOJ has clearly established a policy of siding with the abortion industry as it breaks laws, kills babies and harms women and girls,” responded SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “This motion to dismiss is a slap in the face to red state allies everywhere, the MAHA movement, and Republicans’ deeply loyal pro-life base. Our field team is on the ground in key battleground states, talking to voters at their doorsteps every day. Just eight months from midterms, the peril for the GOP is serious and growing.”
“They think that limiting access to chemical abortions in pro-life states would hurt Republican candidates during the 2026 midterms,” surmised Catholic University of America and Charlotte Lozier Institute pro-life researcher Michael New. “President Trump wants to keep Republican majorities partly because he is afraid of being impeached by a Democrat-controlled Congress.”
Many pro-lifers are losing patience waiting for the FDA’s review, which was promised in May 2025 but has received no conclusions or significant follow-up since – leaving pro-lifers especially disinclined to wait indefinitely for it as the administration demands in court.
Last month, a group of senators held a private meeting with FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, after which Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) went so far as to declare, “I just don’t think that that review is even underway.” The FDA claims it is merely taking the time to process and review all the data carefully.
Mail-order abortion pills have become arguably the abortion lobby’s most important tool for perpetuating abortion-on-demand and undermining pro-life laws, as it makes chemical abortions even in pro-life states extremely difficult to prevent.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s most recent annual report revealed that, almost two years (as of April 2024) after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed direct abortion bans to be enforced for the first time in half a century, the nation’s largest abortion chain still operated almost 600 facilities nationwide, through which it committed 392,715 in the most recent reporting period. According to Prof. New, that is a “record number of abortions for the organization and represents approximately 40 percent of the abortions performed in the United States.”