WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers continue to turn up the pressure on the Trump administration to crack down on the widespread mailing of abortion drugs across the country.
Senate and House Republicans repeated calls for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reverse Biden-era regulations allowing the abortion pill mifepristone to be sent through the mail. The calls come as data shows that abortions have only increased after Roe v. Wade was overturned, largely fueled by mail-order drugs.
The first call to action came during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP) Committee Wednesday morning, which focused on the dangers of the abortion pill. The committee hearing was packed with both pro-abortion and pro-life activists.
“I urge Secretary Kennedy and Commissioner Makary to complete the safety review of mifepristone that they both promised us during their confirmation hearings. Republican members of this committee and many other senators expect an answer. At an absolute minimum, the previous in-person safeguards should be restored, and it should be done immediately,” said Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the chair of the HELP Committee.
During Cassidy’s hearing, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill testified Wednesday that abortions have been rising in her state.
“Indeed, abortions have tragically increased in Louisiana and other pro-life states since Dobbs because of the Biden administration’s actions,” she said. “Shield laws in some states protect providers from liability and effectively nullify laws in our states. Their purpose is to make it more difficult to sue or prosecute individuals in those states where abortion drugs are prohibited.”
After the hearing, Murrill told reporters that she had briefly flagged the issue for Makary, but that there had been no further developments. She said she would like to see quick action on the issue.
During the hearing, Democrat Senator Patty Murray, who called the hearing a “sham,” cited the recent approval of another generic form of the abortion pill in September by the FDA. That approval shocked pro-life advocates and lawmakers, prompting Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) to say he had completely lost faith in the agency.
Murray later cut off Dr. Monique Wubbenhorst, another witness, as she spoke about the women delivering fully developed dead babies after taking the abortion pill.
Medication abortions, which are the most common abortion method, are facilitated by a woman taking mifepristone and misoprostol. After a pregnant woman takes mifepristone, the unborn child is cut off from the nutrients it needs to survive and is effectively starved to death.
Calls to reverse the mail regulations were echoed Wednesday afternoon as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), one of President Donald Trump’s closest supporters, led a press conference demanding that the mail-order abortion pill regulations be scrapped.
“The pro-life community is not asking too much of Republican administrations in Congress to repeal the Biden policy. I think that’s why we got elected,” Graham said. “A Biden policy that undercuts the state’s rights approach because the Biden policy allowed the abortion pill to be sent through the mail, regardless of what the state of law is, effectively destroying every pro-life law in the country at the state level.”
Appealing directly to the president, Graham said it was “time to deal with this issue.”
The Family Research Council just kicked off a press conference led by Senator Lindsey Graham urging the Trump admin to crackdown on the mailing of abortion drugs into red states. pic.twitter.com/ABakoDfBJN
— Leif Le Mahieu (@leif_lemahieu) January 14, 2026
The conference, organized by Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, was attended by Cassidy, Hawley, Senator James Lankford (R-OK), Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), and Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN).
“There are more abortions committed today in the United States than when Roe was the law of the land,” Hawley said. “Do the American people have any right to protect life in their states, in their localities, nationally?”
Pro-life groups have grown increasingly impatient with the Trump administration’s action toward the abortion pill. Some groups have called for Makary to be ousted from the FDA, while others have accused him of slow-walking a study on the safety of the drug.
Perkins said Wednesday that there would be a “political problem” for those who “sold out the pro-life movement.”
“This policy could be changed overnight, and it should be. Politics aside, this is an issue of the sanctity of human life, it is an issue of the promises made to protect the unborn,” he said. “The states took the initiative, they took the action, and they’ve been denied the right to see those walls effectively put into place through the undermining of the FDA policy.”
Those sentiments were shared by several pro-life leaders who watched the abortion pill hearing.
“Mailing the abortion pill is illegal, immoral, and deadly. And I’m calling on President Trump and Secretary Kennedy to reverse the Biden administration’s policies and return to requiring an in-person doctor’s visit for anyone being prescribed mifepristone,” Doug Truax, the CEO of Restoration of America, told The Daily Wire.
Shawn Carney, the president and CEO of 40 Days for Life, said it was time “for the government to intervene and to finally protect women and their unborn children from a dangerous, predatory industry.”
Live Action President Lila Rose said that the abortion drug should be pulled from the market altogether.
“This hearing must be a turning point. The Trump administration should immediately restore in-person safeguards, fully investigate the mounting evidence of harm, and act decisively to protect women and children,” she said. “But more than that, the FDA must reverse its reckless approval of mifepristone and pull this dangerous drug from the market altogether.”
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