The very Pro-Life states of Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas challenge the pro-death states of New York, California and Massachusetts in Supreme Court

 

Multistate lawsuit asks Supreme Court to hear challenge to abortion ‘shield laws’

written by Kate Scanlon 

The U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington May 11, 2026. (OSV News photo/Jonathan Ernst, Reuters)

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The attorneys general of Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas Sept. 30 announced a lawsuit challenging the abortion “shield laws” of New York, California and Massachusetts.

The Republican-led states asked the Supreme Court to take up their challenge to the so-called “shield laws” passed by the Democratic-led states in an effort to prevent the prosecution of abortion providers within those states by states with bans or other restrictions on abortion.

The attorneys general behind the lawsuit argued that the shield laws allow abortion providers to violate their own states’ abortion restrictions by protecting those who mail abortion-inducing drugs from states that permit them to states that restrict them. 

Such laws also “commonly allow anonymous or nearly anonymous mailing of abortion drugs,” the suit said.

‘Louisiana has made its position on abortion clear’

“Louisiana has made its position on abortion clear through the bipartisan will of the people’s representatives in its Legislature,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement. “Louisiana chooses life. We will not allow activist states, activist providers, or distributors profiting from killing babies to threaten Louisiana’s sovereignty, violate Louisiana law, or endanger Louisiana women and babies.”

In a statement in response to the announcement of the lawsuit, New York Attorney General Letitia James said, “Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas are asking the Supreme Court to let them impose their abortion bans on New York and punish our doctors for providing legal health care.”

“New York has always been a safe haven for reproductive freedom,” James said. “It was true before Roe, it has been true since Dobbs, and it will remain true long after this lawsuit inevitably fails. I will fight with everything in my power to defend our shield law and protect every provider and patient who depends on it.”

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, celebrated the lawsuit in a statement, arguing, “The constitutional issue is clear: blue states are playing politics to obstruct justice.”

Concerns over allowing shipment of mifepristone by mail

The lawsuit comes as some pro-life leaders have raised concerns that the Trump administration has not rolled back a Biden administration policy permitting the shipment of mifepristone by mail. 

The Trump administration has sought to pause other state lawsuits seeking to roll back the eased restrictions on mifepristone, a drug commonly used for first trimester abortion, but which is also used in some miscarriage care protocols. Thus far the administration has left that regulation in effect while seeking to block those challenges, pending a promised Food and Drug Administration safety review, prompting frustration from pro-life advocates.

“We continue to encourage U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Department of Justice to swiftly settle the case with Louisiana — saving 15,000 or more lives each month by getting these deadly drugs out of the mail immediately,” Dannenfelser said. “At a minimum, Americans of every political persuasion strongly favor in-person dispensing.”

The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death and therefore opposes direct abortion.

Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.

USCCB wants to fight the spread of abortion pills in the U.S.

 

USCCB Offices in the United States  

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US Bishops launch prayer and action initiative against spread of abortion pills

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities invites Catholics to pray and act to stop the spread of abortion pills.

Vatican News

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities is inviting Catholics to join a focused effort of prayer and action against the spread of abortion pills, starting on August 18 and lasting until October.

“Every abortion involves the death of a child and harm to the mother. Now with easier access to abortion pills, the abortion rate is tragically climbing, along with increased health risks,” said Archbishop Paul Coakley, USCCB President, and Bishop Daniel Thomas, Chairman of the Conference’s Pro-Life committee, in a joint invitation released on August 18.

The invitation includes a prayer in English and Spanish that can be said for the intercession of St. Joseph, Defender of Life. It also encourages Catholics visit the USCCB’s Respect Life Prayer and Action website, where they can learn about the danger of abortion pills and send messages to pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies that are involved.

The initiative was launched in order to overlap with the Respect Life Month, which is observed every October by the Catholic Church in the United States.

A system that leaves women vulnerable

“The Food and Drug Administration has enabled a nationwide mail-order abortion industry by allowing abortion pills to be prescribed in telehealth appointments and sold both at neighborhood pharmacies and online, circumventing state laws that protect life in the womb,” the Bishops’ invitation explains.

“This leaves women vulnerable to suffering an abortion alone at home, without any medical supervision. It also sets up additional opportunities for exploitation by violent partners or human traffickers.”

In May, the US Supreme Court extended an order that temporarily continues to allow for abortion pills to be prescribed through telemedicine and sent by mail, as a legal dispute over this issue takes place in a lower court.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. federal public health agency, in 2022, 58% of US abortions involved pills.  

Newly approved Attorney General wants to stop mail shipments of abortion inducing pills

 

Blanche signals potential restrictions on mifepristone by mail from Trump administration

written by Kate Scanlon

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche attends a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington Aug. 5, 2026. Blanche signaled on a July private call with a predominantly Protestant Christian ministry that the Trump administration would be "putting practices and policies in place" to stop shipment of mifepristone by mail. (OSV News photo/Jonathan Ernst, Reuters)

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signaled on a call with a predominantly Protestant Christian ministry that the Trump administration would be “putting practices and policies in place” to stop shipment of mifepristone by mail. 

During a private call-in late July, hosted by the White House Faith Office, Blanche told the group Intercessors for America that the Justice Department was “working hand in hand” with federal agencies and the White House “so that the Dobbs decision becomes permanent in every single state.” He referred to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision finding abortion a constitutionally protected right and returned the matter of restricting or regulating abortion to the legislative branch. A recording of the Blanche call, which appears to have since been removed from YouTube, was first reported by Politico.

“If states have said, ‘We are going to protect the unborn and we’re going to protect every life from the moment of conception,’ we’re putting practices and policies in place so that other states and other organizations can’t attack that,” Blanche said on the call. “They can’t do things like they’re doing with mailing in mail-order drugs.”

A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from OSV News. 

Justice Department says Blanche remarks need to be understood in context

But a Justice Department statement provided to The Hill claimed Blanche’s “comments have been mischaracterized and need to be understood in their full context, which was with respect to mail order abortion drugs, not a broader expansion of federal control over states.”

The Trump administration asked multiple judges to pause state lawsuits seeking to roll back Biden administration-era eased restrictions on mifepristone, a drug commonly used for first trimester abortion, but which is also used in some miscarriage care protocols. The Trump administration has thus far left that regulation in effect while seeking to block challenges to it pending a promised FDA safety review, prompting frustration from pro-life advocates.

The state lawsuits — notably from Louisiana, Missouri and Florida — seek to end the FDA policy implemented during the Biden administration permitting mifepristone to be distributed by mail. The states have argued the policy undermines their own state laws, among other objections.

In April, a federal judge agreed to the Justice Department’s request and paused Louisiana’s lawsuit but indicated the state could potentially continue its challenge after the FDA concludes its safety review. However, the status and timeline of the FDA review are unclear. 

Mifepristone policy raised in confirmation process

Blanche’s recent comments came as he sought Senate confirmation as attorney general.

His nomination was advanced by the Senate Judiciary Committee Aug. 4. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement acknowledging the committee vote that during Blanche’s hearing, “a majority of GOP senators on the Judiciary Committee pressed him on abortion drugs, uncomfortable with the continuation of Biden’s illegal mail-order abortion drug regime and the Department of Justice’s opposition in court to pro-life states challenging the scheme.” 

Blanche, she said, “was right when he said, ‘We very much believe the Biden rules were wrong.’ We thank pro-life senators for questioning Acting AG Blanche and urge the Acting AG to swiftly settle the case with Louisiana and abortion drug coercion survivor Rosalie Markezich to immediately get abortion drugs out of the mail while the FDA’s safety study continues.”

Blanche’s path to confirmation by the full Senate is narrow. Of three senators seen as key swing votes, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is seeking reelection in a swing state in November, said Aug. 4 she will not support Blanche’s nomination. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, on Aug. 7 said she would not support Blanche, while Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said the same day he would. 

Senate GOP leadership can afford to lose just two Republicans if Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., remains absent from the upper chamber and if all 47 Senate Democrats vote “no.”

US bishops concerned over abortion pills by mail

The U.S. Catholic bishops will launch a nationwide call to prayer and action on Aug. 18, in what they called an effort to mobilize Catholics to address the rising abortion rate and the increased availability of mifepristone for abortion via mail.

According to an estimate from Guttmacher Institute, a research firm that supports legal abortion access, 1.12 million abortions took place in the U.S. in 2025, marking a 21% increase from 2020, “the last year of comprehensive national estimates” before Dobbs. It found 2025 figures were largely unchanged from the prior year but suggested they might be low due to the ability to acquire abortion pills by means other than U.S. abortion clinic providers.

Despite Dobbs, sadly, abortions still rising due to mail-order chemical abortions

 

Abortion count rises as women turn to chemical abortions, per new data

The abortion count is rising as women rely more on mail-order chemical abortions, according to the most recent data.

Credit: Yta23/Shutterstock

By Kate Quiñones

July 24, 2026, at 2:31 PM ET

The U.S. abortion count continues to rise even as travel abortions decrease, a recent study found.

The Guttmacher Institute, a data group that openly supports abortion access, documented a decrease in people leaving their own state to get abortions in other states. Instead, abortion seekers turn toward mail-order abortions, which have seen a surge in recent years.

The group tracks abortions monthly, following trends “in the post-Dobbs era” since 2023, according to Guttmacher data scientist and study lead Isaac Maddow-Zimet.

The data indicated an overall increase in abortions from 2025 to 2026.

“In the first three months of 2026, there were 296,130 abortions as compared to 292,590 in the first three months of 2025,” data scholar Michael New told EWTN News. “This is an increase of just over 1%.”

New said this fact has gone underreported.

“Most media outlets that are reporting on the Guttmacher data have not reported on this, but the number of abortions continues to rise,” said New, who is a senior associate scholar at Charlotte Lozier Institute, a group that studies data relating to the pro-life cause.

“These rising abortion numbers are an important reason why pro-lifers are frustrated with the Trump administration’s lack of action on telehealth abortions,” continued New, who also works as a professor at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America.

The Trump administration has neglected to enforce various regulations — such as the Comstock Act or in-person prescription requirements — that could be groundbreaking for protecting unborn children from chemical abortions.

From 2024 to 2025, travel abortions declined by nearly 8%. Scholars agree that mail-order abortion is the reason for the decline in abortion travel.

“Currently, we are seeing a major shift in where and how people access abortion,” Maddow-Zimet said. “While travel remains a critical pathway to care, we have seen a decrease in people leaving their state of residence, likely due to both the growth of telehealth access and fewer options for in-person care in the South and Southeast.”

New also cited chemical abortions as the draw away from travel abortions.

“The main reason for this decline in out-of-state travel is because of the rising number of telehealth abortions,” New said. “The most recent data from the Society for Family Planning shows that approximately 27% of all abortions are done by telehealth.”

In Florida, the study also found a near tripling of abortion travel by Floridians after the state passed a heartbeat law to protect unborn babies; at the same time, fewer people traveled to Florida to obtain abortions due to this law.

“The national decline [in travel abortions] might have been even larger had Florida not started enforcing a Heartbeat Act in 2024,” New said. “Because of this strong pro-life law, far fewer women residing in southern states traveled to Florida for abortions.”

Texas has also seen a decline in Texans traveling to get abortions.

“This trend is seen at the state level,” New continued. “Between 2024 and 2025 the number of Texas women obtaining abortions in other states fell by 19%.”

Mail-order abortion is pro-life priority

Advocates for unborn children highlighted the importance of opposing chemical abortions and protecting unborn children across state lines.

Abortion continues to rise with the increase in mail-order abortions.

Kelsey Pritchard, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America spokeswoman, called for protections of unborn children across state lines.

“We need a national minimum standard to ensure children across America have basic human rights and the chance at life, regardless of their zip code,” Pritchard told EWTN News.

“Nine states and the District of Columbia still have no gestational limits whatsoever on abortion, allowing abortion up to the moment of birth, with late-term abortion centers purposely located within range of pro-life state borders,” Pritchard said. “This is barbaric and extreme, and it places the United States in the same category as communist countries like China and Vietnam on abortion.”

“While stopping the ‘Wild West’ of unregulated abortion by mail is our immediate priority, both issues underscore the urgent need for national action to protect unborn children and their mothers,” Pritchard said.

“Abortion travel is down overall, but mail-order abortions are surging and driving the national total up to an estimated 1.1 million abortions per year — more than the day Roe was reversed,” Pritchard said. “Every single month, approximately 15,000 babies in the womb die from mail-order abortion drugs in states with pro-life laws, while women and girls are poisoned and coerced by abusers who obtain these drugs online without so much as an ID check.”

Kristi Hamrick, Students for Life spokeswoman, questioned the data, noting that there is no reporting requirement for abortion.

“I find it extraordinary that the abortion industry reports so much data that is accepted as gospel, despite the fact that we canʼt verify it,” Hamrick said. “We have no national abortion reporting law, and while this data will be broadly reported, every point of data from pro-life sources is treated as suspect.”

Guttmacher collects monthly data from brick-and-mortar facilities and telehealth providers, according to the study methodology.

The nature of mail-order abortion pills makes it harder to accurately track the number of the abortions in the U.S. as the pills are highly unregulated and some companies operate outside of the U.S. healthcare system.

“The landscape of abortion is shifting, from brick-and-mortar abortion vendor to online pill pushers, so less driving, if that is true, does not mean less abortion,” Hamrick said.

For Students for Life, “fighting chemical abortion pills” is a priority.

Through pregnancy help centers, maternity homes, and other programs, the pro-life movement continues to encourage women to choose life.

“But what is happening in real time is that many are reaching out to women online and in their communities to encourage and support them in choosing life, while we also have to confront a new abortion cartel,” Hamrick said.

Supreme Court hearing case today on the chemical abortion drug and Biden's FDA support of the drug

 

Experts preview U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion pill case

By Kate Quiñones

CNA Newsroom, Mar 25, 2024 / 19:40 pm

The United States Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday regarding the Biden administration’s alleged deficient safeguards surrounding use of the chemical abortion drug mifepristone and the risk the drug poses to women.

Among the safeguards, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine case could see the restoration of the initial requirement of in-person doctor visits before prescription of the pill as well as the initial seven-week limit on use of the abortion pill. 

In the case, the FDA challenged an August 2023 federal court ruling that affirmed that the FDA did not follow proper testing and safety protocols when it approved the abortion drug in 2000. 

In 2021, the FDA eliminated the in-person doctor visit originally required to obtain the drug, allowing the abortion pill to be prescribed via telemedicine and distributed through the mail. Earlier this year, drug stores such as Walgreens began selling the abortion pill over the count

Elizabeth Gillette, who survived severe complications from a chemical abortion, is set to testify about the lack of sufficient safeguards surrounding the drug and spoke with “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol about the case.

In the interview, Gillette shared her experience with a chemical abortion — severe bleeding, labor pains, and seeing her dead child — that inspired her to testify against the lack of safeguards. 

“I was not properly prepared for the powerful drug that is the abortion pill. I suffered devastating side effects,” Gillette explained.

Chemical abortions involve a two-pill regimen consisting of the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol. This type of abortion cuts off the nutrients necessary for an unborn child to develop and then expels him or her from the womb. 

“I found myself on the bathroom floor in a pool of blood until I ended up expelling the entire amniotic sac with my baby — a recognizable baby inside,” she continued. “The trauma from this horrific experience still follows me today in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder.”

“This is nothing like what they told me would happen,” Gillette said. “It was minimized and the care was subpar.”

Chemical abortions account for over half of all U.S. abortions, according to a recent study.

Senior Counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Kellie Fiedorek also spoke about the case in an interview with Sabol.

“The FDA recklessly removed its original safeguards that provide women with in-person, ongoing care when taking abortion drugs,” she said. “Because they removed those, they put women’s lives in danger.”

“We sued the FDA on behalf of doctors to hold them accountable, and we’re asking the Supreme Court to reinstate those vital safeguards to protect the health and safety of women across this country,” Fiodorek indicated.

“The FDA’s own label says that roughly one in 25 women who take these drugs will end up in the emergency room,” Fiedorek continued. “So regardless of what people’s beliefs might be about abortion, we should all agree that women deserve the ongoing in-person care of a doctor when they’re taking high-risk drugs.”

The FDA first approved mifepristone for abortion in 2000 but included some restrictions on dispensation to prevent severe side effects. One restriction was that the drug had to be prescribed and dispensed in person.

That changed in 2021 when the FDA decided that the in-person requirement put a “burden on the health care delivery system.”

Over the years, other restrictions on the drug have also been removed. In 2016, the FDA determined that the drug can be used when a woman is pregnant with a child at 70 days’ gestation. Before 2016, the gestational limit was seven weeks. The FDA also decided in 2016 that non-physicians could prescribe the pill. 

In August 2023, the Fifth Circuit Court affirmed a lower court ruling that the FDA must reinstate the restrictions on the mifepristone pill that were in place before 2016. Those restrictions are currently on hold pending the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision. 

America’s Catholic bishops expressed concern about chemical abortions. In a February statement, the bishops noted that if the FDA policies are allowed to remain in place, “potentially harmful drugs [will] be mailed directly to girls and women who did not see a medical professional in person and may be injured or killed without public knowledge of the cause.”

“I would like everybody to remember that this is an extremely powerful drug, and women deserve ... to be treated with respect and with the safeguards in place,” Gillette said. “We’re worth it.”