Pro-life leaders are calling on President Donald Trump and legislators to regulate the dangerous abortion pill regimen and pass legislation that will help American families flourish.
A coalition of leading pro-life organizations, including Live Action and the James Wilson Institute, led by Americans United for Life (AUL), sent letters to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), urging the reinstatement of basic safety regulations on mifepristone, the first drug of the two-drug abortion pill regimen, in accordance with the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) and the enforcement of the Comstock Act, which outlaws abortion pill and abortion equipment trafficking.
AUL is asking pro-life Americans to sign a petition urging the new Trump administration to impose basic regulations for the largely unrestricted and dangerous abortion pill. Additionally, AUL has partnered with Live Action and the James Wilson Institute on a recently released policy paper highlighting the history and dangers of the currently unregulated abortion pill regimen and providing a national vision for freedom from national abortion pill trafficking and its many implications.
Concerns raised over abortion pill trafficking
The policy report raises concern over the abortion pill regimen, which includes the drugs mifepristone (also known as Mifeprex) and misoprostol.
Risks of the abortion pill
The FDA has approved the regimen for the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. At 10 weeks gestation, the preborn baby already has a well-developed brain and defined fingers and toes. Many abortion businesses, including Planned Parenthood, prescribe the abortion regimen to women who are more than 10 weeks pregnant and in doing so may dangerously alter dosage levels and advise women to insert misoprostol vaginally, which can lead to infection.
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Incomplete abortion and life-threatening infection are known risks of the abortion pill. After Amber Thurman took the abortion pill, she suffered an incomplete abortion and a deadly sepsis infection that claimed her life.
The report points out that “Mifeprex’s 2023 label states that one in every [25] women who take abortion drugs end up in the emergency room.”
Partner violence and coercion
The report also notes that the abortion pill puts women at risk of partner violence and coerced abortion. Live Action News has documented cases in which predatory men have acquired abortion pills and pressured women to take the pills or secretly placed the pills in women’s drinks. Live Action has also documented the emotional trauma and regret that women have experienced after seeing their aborted babies following chemical abortions.
A National Vision for Freedom from Abortion Pill Trafficking
Enforcing existing criminal prohibitions on the abortion pill
The Executive Branch of the government enforces the existing criminal prohibitions coded at 18 U.S.C. §§ 1461-62, colloquially known as the Comstock Act, against abortion pill manufacturers.
The Comstock Act, which was first passed in 1873 to promote civic virtue in alignment with America’s moral heritage, prohibits the mailing of drugs and devices intended for the intentional killing of unborn children. The law does not prohibit the mailing of drugs to be used in cases of miscarriage, to save the life of a mother, or for other medical purposes. The law does not prohibit the shipping of the second drug in the abortion pill regimen, misoprostol, when the drug is to be used to treat medical problems including miscarriage and gastric ulcers, for example.
Congress has consistently upheld the Comstock Act’s prohibition on abortion pill trafficking, and President Clinton and Congress even acted in 1996 to expand the restrictions to computer abortion pill orders. The law has never been repealed or revoked. President Trump must act to enforce the Comstock Act, ensuring that U.S. and foreign abortion drug manufacturers and companies are not able to send these dangerous drugs to vulnerable American women. Additionally, the pro-life coalition authoring this report is calling on Trump to direct the Federal Food and Drug Administration to follow the law in withdrawing its approval of Mifeprex.
Pro-life attorneys have worked for years to bring forward lawsuits that will lead to the enforcement of the Comstock Act. A recent case in New Mexico may warrant “an appeal to the United States Supreme Court on the Comstock Law,” according to Attorney Mike Seibel, which could be a momentous step forward in saving lives from abortion pill trafficking.
Laws to regulate abortion pill trafficking within state lines
State legislatures may add violations of the Comstock Act as violations of state anti-racketeering law. Additionally, state legislatures can enforce consumer protection laws and empower citizens to enforce the law against abortion pill trafficking.
Localities, cities, and counties may also pass binding ordinances in accordance with federal law to prevent abortion pill trafficking. Over 70 political subdivisions in the U.S. have become “Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn” by passing such ordinances. Mark Lee Dickson, pro-life activist and founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn initiative, is responsible for spearheading this strategy to curtail the abortion industry.
In addition, lawmakers “must address the predatory corporate powers of promoting abortion…and affirm and advance substantive policies that make the choice for life irresistible,” the AUL policy paper states. Furthermore, the paper says, “Abortion should never be cheaper than the choice for life.” Accordingly, lawmakers may amend the Affordable Care Act and extend child credit and paid family leave in order to make America a place where families can flourish.
The AUL report concludes by stating that “Abortion is not healthcare,” and gives a call to action for Americans to “protect human dignity and promote flourishing families by enforcing existing laws on abortion trafficking. As the new Trump administration is underway, now is the time to envision and implement an American future in which “the dignity of every human life is cherished and protected, where justice prevails, and where compassion triumphs over indifference.” This will involve the commitment of American citizens.
Editor’s Note, 2/4/25: This post has been updated since original publication.
Editor’s Note: Some of the research cited in the AUL report and linked in this article is drawn from the work of Live Action Research Fellow, Carole Novielli, and other Live Action News authors and editors.
