The Justice Department has just told Louisiana—and every other red state—that it has no right to block mail-order abortion drugs pouring in from out of state. In one fell swoop, the Biden administration put federal edicts over state sovereignty and unleashed thousands of chemical abortions across America’s heartland.
This is raw federal overreach. By insisting that FDA rules allowing mifepristone by mail “do not infringe” on state pro-life laws, the DOJ is trampling the will of voters and the plain text of state statutes. Louisiana’s attorney general warned that as many as 1,000 dangerous, government-approved abortions are now shipped into her state every month. The administration’s answer? “No harm, no foul.”
Make no mistake: this dispute is not about process. It is about power. The FDA approved its current Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) for mifepristone three years ago. Pro-life groups, backed by evidence of serious complications and coerced abortions, filed suit last fall to halt these regulations. Instead of defending state law, the DOJ pleaded for time—citing an ongoing federal “study” into the safety of mifepristone. Justice delayed, they argue, is not justice denied.
But the “study” excuse is a cover for inaction. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. admit the agency is reviewing its own rules. Pro-life Americans know that bureaucratic reviews rarely end in rolling back radical policies. This is exactly how the Biden White House maintains its abortion-by-mail scheme while paying lip service to “states’ rights.”
The facts are stark. Mifepristone, once limited to clinical settings, can now be dispensed by mail-order startups that operate with zero accountability. Shield laws in California and New York bar any investigation into these outfits. The result: unscrupulous actors flood red states with abortion drugs, flouting local bans and wrecking the lives of mothers and unborn children.
Louisiana won’t stand down. Attorney General Liz Murrill blasted the filing as “an affront to our sovereignty and the dignity of women and the unborn.” Alliance Defending Freedom, representing plaintiff Rosalie Markezich, emphasizes that women like Rosalie already suffer from illegal mail-order pills. Coerced and misinformed, they are denied the basic protections every other medicine enjoys: in-person exams, ultrasounds, follow-up care.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America calls the DOJ’s stance “a denial of justice,” noting that abortion drugs delivered by mail kill more Americans than cocaine or heroin. Leader Marjorie Dannenfelser demands that FDA reinstate commonsense guardrails immediately—before more lives are lost.
This fight illustrates a simple truth: when the federal bureaucracy decides it knows better than state legislatures and the people they serve, democracy itself is at risk. The Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision returned abortion policy to the states. Now, the Biden administration wants to negate Dobbs through administrative fiat.
Republicans in Congress must act. A comprehensive ban on mifepristone mail-order deliveries would restore state authority and protect women from dangerous shortcuts. At a minimum, oversight hearings should expose the network of activists and corporations profiting from unregulated abortions in “protected” states. And every federal judge resisting this gross overreach should face swift legislative correction.
No more excuses. No more studies. If the FDA believes in its rules, it can defend them openly—in the courts or on Capitol Hill. But masking radical social policy with procedural delays only underscores the administration’s contempt for American institutions.
States are sovereign. Mothers deserve real care. Unborn children deserve a chance at life. The DOJ’s latest brief throws down the gauntlet. It is time for Republicans—and all who revere the rule of law—to pick it up.
