The Supreme Court this week temporarily allowed women to obtain chemical abortion pills remotely while it considers Louisiana’s case against the FDA’s regulation of mifepristone.
Behind closed doors, Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins lobbied the Department of Justice (DOJ) to shut down the mail-order abortion industry altogether by enforcing the Comstock Act.
“All it would take is for the Trump DOJ to issue a memo and say, ‘We’re going to enforce the law.’” Hawkins told the Daily Citizen.
“That, overnight, would end this wild, wild west of abortion we are currently facing in our country.”
When the FDA began allowing physicians to prescribe the chemical abortion pill mifepristone remotely without “adequately studying” the safety of such a step, the agency birthed a massive, unregulated, interstate drug market.
“Any person — sex abuser, human trafficker, a man, a minor, a girl who has a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy — can go online to a couple of websites and order chemical abortion pills within two minutes,” said Hawkins. “It doesn’t matter what state she’s in.”
There’s no guarantee the pills these women receive contain mifepristone and misoprostol, the second chemical in the abortion cocktail which sends women into labor.
“It’s a problem [abortionists] are having in their own industry,” she explained. “There’s zero accuracy to make sure the pills women are getting are even abortion pills and not placebos.”
The federal government doesn’t need to pass a law to take on the wildly exploitative chemical abortion industry. It’s already illegal under the Comstock Act.
The act, which Congress passed in 1873, prohibits the interstate transportation of “obscene or crime-inciting” materials, including every “article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine or thing” used to facilitate or perform abortion.
Thus far, however, the DOJ has refused to enforce Comstock.
Under the Biden administration, the department issued an opinion finding the law did not apply to interstate shipments of chemical abortion pills.
The tortured take relies on judicial interpretations of Comstock from the early twentieth century which determined violators must knowingly send “obscene or crime-inciting” materials to perform, not just any abortions, but unlawful abortions.
Of course, at the time of Comstock’s creation, virtually all abortions were unlawful. The DOJ apparently did not consider this fact when, in December 2022, it determined that Comstock did not apply to chemical abortion pills because abortionists could intend the pills be used in lawful abortions.
With the stroke of a pen, the current DOJ could rescind this memo and begin enforcing the act, effectively banning the sale of mifepristone and misoprostol across state lines.
“A simple memo tomorrow from the DOJ could save hundreds of thousands of lives,” Hawkins emphasized. “That’s all we’re asking for.”
Enforcing the Comstock Act wouldn’t just score the Trump administration a win with the pro-life community, Hawkins told DOJ officials. It would support the president’s belief that abortion policy should be determined by the states.
“Even while I disagree with the president on that fact,” Hawkins told the Daily Citizen, noting “terrible, tragic things” happen when leaders allow human rights to begin and end at state lines, “if he truly believes [abortion] to be a state’s rights issue, the solution is to get the federal government completely out of abortion.”
That, she elaborated, requires two things: Extending the defunding of Planned Parenthood and enforcing the Comstock Act, which would prevent pro-abortion states from flooding pro-life states with chemical abortion pills.
“These are simple things the administration can do that would be in alignment with what the president himself has said about abortion policy that would save hundreds of lives,” Hawkins reiterated.
She was encouraged to hear DOJ officials confirm the Comstock Act had come up in several conversations at the department.
“So at least they know about it!” she exclaimed.
If the DOJ didn’t before this week, they do now. Hawkins and Students for Life Action delivered tens of thousands of petitions to the department’s doorstep Wednesday supporting the Comstock Act’s enforcement.
As consequential questions about mail-order abortion, the true danger of mifepristone and funding for Planned Parenthood linger over Capitol Hill, the Daily Citizen prays the Trump administration will take bold steps to protect women, babies and life by enforcing the Comstock Act.
Additional Articles and Resources
Supreme Court Temporarily Restores Access to Mail-Order Abortion Pills
Texas Father Sues Out-of-State Abortionist for Killing His Preborn Children
Shield Laws Enable Chemical Abortion in Pro-Life States
Shield Law Abortion Providers Advertised Alongside Black Market Abortion Pills
#AbortionChangesYou: A Case Study to Understand the Communicative Tensions in Women’s Medication Abortion Narratives (Health Communication)
New Abortion Pill Study Confirms Danger to Mothers
The Abortion Pill Harms Women: Insurance Data Reveals One in Ten Patients Experiences a Serious Adverse Event (Ethics and Public Policy Center)
