Trump White House Told DOJ to Wait Until After Midterms to Push for Abortion Pill Ban

The Trump administration is intentionally slow-rolling efforts to restrict abortion pill access until after the midterms. Once they're over, "the gloves will be off," according to one anti-abortion advocate who spoke with The Washington Sun.

US Attorney General Todd Blanche said during his July confirmation hearing that rules allowing abortion pills to be shipped nationwide were "wrong" and that he'd seek to review them. He's also reportedly assured faith leaders he would work to ban abortion "in every single state."

But according to a Friday report from the Sun, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has intervened to limit the potential political fallout of new sweeping restrictions on a method that accounts for nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the US.

Six in 10 Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and 68% say they oppose the banning of medication abortion nationwide. According to senior White House officials, Wiles warned Blanche that an aggressive effort to ban the drug would further alienate voters in November, when Republicans are already predicted to take heavy losses.

"No one wants us taking any real action before the midterms,” one senior administration official told the Sun, passing on the message apparently being pushed by White House staff to the Justice Department.

The White House has denied that the meetings took place, saying the report was "completely false."

But anti-abortion activists who have pressured the White House told the Sun they believe officials are just biding their time until, in their view, the opinion of voters no longer matters.

“Once the midterms are over and it’s truly lame-duck time, we’ve heard the gloves will be off,” one of them said. “We have heard we have friends [in the White House], and there are definitely people who are staunch pro-lifers.”

During President Donald Trump’s second term, the DOJ has asked federal courts to pause several state lawsuits challenging Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policies that allow mifepristone to be prescribed via telehealth and delivered by mail. But critically, it has not defended those FDA policies on the merits, but rather sought to slow litigation against them on procedural grounds.

But evidence also suggests the administration is laying the groundwork to restrict access once the political costs are neutralized. Despite multiple prior reviews reaffirming its safety and effectiveness, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spearheaded an FDA "safety" review of mifepristone that could tighten prescription and delivery rules.

Blanche, meanwhile, has indicated openness to reviving the 1873 Comstock Act, which banned the shipment of “lewd” and “indecent” materials through the mail, including those related to abortion.

Amy Littlefield, The Nation's abortion access correspondent, has described Comstock as a “zombie law from the Victorian era," but said it could serve as a "nuclear option" for effectively banning abortion nationwide without any need for an act of Congress.

Since the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling overturned the national right to an abortion, anti-abortion groups have pushed for the act to be interpreted in the most expansive way possible.

"If abortion opponents are right in their reading of it, if the courts agree with their reading of it, it could essentially be revived as a de facto nationwide abortion ban that would apply even in blue states," Littlefield told Democracy Now! "Broadly interpreted, it could apply to latex gloves that might be used in an abortion, or syringes... It could be broadly interpreted to shut down not just mail-order abortions, but also clinic-based care, depending on how it’s read."

In 2022, the DOJ under the Biden administration published a legal opinion stating that Comstock does not prohibit the mailing of abortion drugs unless the sender intends to use them illegally. During his confirmation, Blanche said he would revisit that opinion and would use “every lawful action available” to enforce the law.

One unnamed anti-abortion activist told the Sun they've been assured that, under Blanche, the DOJ is "actively working on" plans to use Comstock to restrict abortion. Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, has previously told the Sun that she's had "encouraging" meetings with a DOJ official and that plans to rescind the 2022 memo are in the works.

Kristi Hamrick, vice president of media and policy for Students for Life, however, said the DOJ had indicated that “everything but the election is pushed until after the elections.”

Trump has vowed to be the “most pro-life president in history" since returning to office. But while campaigning in 2024, he pledged explicitly that he would “not block” access to abortion drugs.

Katie O'Connor, the director of federal abortion policy at the National Women's Law Center, told Common Dreams that "asking the DOJ to wait until midterm votes are counted to take action on abortion is an intentionally deceptive move that keeps voters from making their voices heard."

"This isn't a surprise if you've been paying attention to how this administration operates when it comes to abortion," said Mini Timmaraju, the president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, in a social media post.

"Abortion is extremely popular with voters. Trump knows that," she said. "But he's also under a ton of pressure from anti-abortion extremists to take away access to medication abortion, which is used in the majority of abortions in the US and has been a lifeline for access post-[Roe v. Wade]."

"They’re trying to pull one over on voters," she said. "We’re not going to let that happen."