Religious Right Cheers Josh Hawley Bill to Criminalize Abortion Medication
03/12/2026
by
Peter Montgomery
Anti-abortion leaders are cheering legislation introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley to ban the distribution and use of mifepristone, a medication used in most abortions in the U.S.
Anti-abortion groups have been frustrated that women living in states that banned abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade have been able to access abortion medication by mail. They have been urging the Trump administration to withdraw a more than 20-year-old FDA approval for the drug’s use. Anti-abortion activists were outraged when in October 2025 the FDA approved a second generic version of the drug. Under pressure, HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr., announced a review of the drug’s safety.
Hawley apparently got tired of waiting for the administration to act. And he wants Congress to take the decision out of the FDA’s hands. After his press conference announcing the legislation on Wednesday, Hawley spoke with the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins. “If Congress says we’re gonna take mifepristone off the market for abortion, that’s how it’s gonna be,” Hawley said. “No future liberal administration will be able to roll that back. It will be in the law.”
In recent weeks, the conservative online magazine The Federalist has published two articles encouraging the Trump administration to restrict access to the abortion pill, citing the concerns of both the Make America Healthy Again and anti-abortion movements. Published by fellows from the Ethics and Public Policy Center and The Heritage Foundation, the articles argue that the administration should restrict access to the abortion pill on the grounds that it keeps a promise to the MAHA faction of President Donald Trump’s base.
On March 10, two EPPC fellows wrote that Trump couldn't “Make America Healthy Again” without restricting the abortion pill. According to the authors, “The Trump administration is all about promises made, promises kept. And the president made three relevant promises here. First, he promised to ‘Make America Healthy Again.’ But you can’t make America healthy with a pill that causes 1 in 9 women who take it to experience a serious adverse event.” [The Federalist, 3/10/26]
About a week later, two Heritage Foundation fellows wrote a piece titled “Trump Admin Can’t ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Without Abortion Pill Restrictions.” The article read, “If MAHA is serious about protecting Americans from dangerous chemicals, it can’t keep ignoring what the abortion pill does to women.” [The Federalist, 3/16/26]
In reality, the Food and Drug Administration has found that medication abortion is a “safe and highly effective method of pregnancy termination. When taken, medication abortion successfully terminates the pregnancy 99.6% of the time, with a 0.4% risk of major complications, and an associated mortality rate of less than 0.001 percent (0.00064%).”
The two articles, however, reflect the anti-abortion stance of their respective organizations: EPPC's Life and Family Initiative produces literature advocating against abortion pill access, and The Heritage Foundation has promised to “mobilize and advance policies at the state and federal levels to ... reduce both the demand for and availability of abortion at all stages of human development.”
Both organizations have also promoted restrictions on in vitro fertilization, at times citing the MAHA movement as the champion of alternative treatments to infertility. Patrick T. Brown, an EPPC fellow working in the organization’s Life and Family Initiative, wrote last year that Trump's executive order aimed at improving access to IVF betrayed MAHA because it didn't “treat the root causes of infertility.” A more recent report from The Heritage Foundation — which proposes to increase the population by incentivizing heterosexual marriage and family — cited MAHA advocacy for restorative reproductive medicine as an alternative to IVF.
In recent months, right-wing media and anti-abortion activists have kept up a drumbeat linking abortion pill restrictions to the Trump MAHA platform
The Federalist has been advocating common ground between the MAHA and anti-abortion movements since at least October 2025, when it published two articles that framed FDA action on the abortion pill within the context of MAHA objectives. Staff writer Jordan Boyd credited MAHA with putting a review of the abortion pill “back on the table,” and contributor Kristi Stone Hamrick wrote, “If we want to Make America Healthy Again, we must reevaluate deadly chemical abortion pills, not approve even more of them.”
Anti-abortion advocates have also emphasized debunked claims that the abortion pill contaminates wastewater. Last December, the anti-abortion group Students for Life of America launched a campaign to add mifepristone to the Environmental Protection Agency's list of drinking water contaminants. A press release announcing the campaign quoted the organization’s president, Kristan Hawkins, as saying, “All I want for Christmas is for millions of Americans to let the Trump Administration know that we want assurances that the Make America Healthy Again agenda includes clean water for all life.”
As Politico reported, “By aligning their new campaign with the ‘Make America Healthy Again’ agenda and its concerns about the impact of chemicals on human health, the group hopes their efforts will convince the Trump administration to restrict access to the drug or, at minimum, shape public opinion about its safety.” And the strategy seems to have produced results. Last week, House Republicans introduced the “Clean Water for All Life Act,” a bill that would restrict access to medication abortion under the pretense of limiting water contamination.
[...]
The MAHA and anti-abortion movements have something else in common, too: They have both reportedly grown disillusioned with the Trump administration's lack of action on key movement concerns.
Right-wing anti-abortion hacks are pressuring the Trump Regime to restrict access to abortion medication such as mifepristone to satiate MAHA and anti-abortion folk on the false basis that such pills are “dangerous.”
These rulings are not the final say. There are opportunities to protect medication abortion access that can be taken by the FDA, the Biden administration, GenBioPro (the manufacturer of mifepristone from the Texas lawsuit), and health care providers. The Washington litigation was important in part because it provided an important antidote to the Texas litigation, and similar efforts could be modeled after the case.
Some more good news: Medication abortion providers have already confirmed that they'll be following FDA protocol first and foremost while they continue to provide mifepristone—whether through the mail and or health care providers. Whole Woman’s Health (an independent abortion provider) said in a twitter statement last night, “[W]e follow directives from the FDA, and not anti-abortion judges in Texas who lack any formal medical training. Whole Woman’s Health will continue to dispense Mife in our clinics and our Pills by Mail program for the next week as we monitor both decisions.”
And Trust Women said, “Nothing has changed yet: medication abortions with mifepristone are still available.” Hey Jane, a virtual clinic that offers abortion medication, told their community last night that they would continue to provide their current mifepristone and misoprostol protocol and will monitor both lawsuits as they progress.
Amy Merrill, the digital director of Plan C—a nonprofit organization that provides resources for safe self-managed medication abortions—said, “Access to safe, self-managed abortion with pills in the US has not been—and cannot be—stopped.”
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14 states have already banned abortion, and more restrictions are on the way. Here are a few of the latest GOP proposals:
⚫ A 12-week abortion ban in Nebraska
⚫ A 6-week ban (because GOP attempts at a full ban failed three times) in South Carolina
⚫ A bill that charges abortion patients with MURDER in Alabama
We HAVE to fight back.
Our state-level mobilizations *are working.* We helped elect a pro-choice state Supreme Court justice in WI and brought national attention to the abortion pill case that started in TX. But we CANNOT stop now.
TY! -Women's March
SIGN ON: TELL THE COURTS TO STAY OUT OF FDA APPROVAL OF ABORTION MEDICATION
Medication abortion is safe and effective, and it should be readily available everywhere.
Add your name right now to DEMAND the courts stay out of FDA approvals >>>
Medication abortion is safe and effective, and it should be readily available everywhere. Add your name right now to DEMAND the courts stay
SIGN ON: TELL THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM TO STAY OUT OF FOOD & DRUG ADMINISTRATION APPROVALS!
A Trump-appointed judge may strike down the FDA’s approval of a critical abortion medication later this month.
The ruling would set a dangerous precedent that radical right-wingers can challenge the approval of ANY medication they don’t approve of — like the birth control pill or emergency contraception (aka Plan B).
We need you to take action to tell the courts to stay OUT of FDA approvals!
Medication abortion is safe and effective, and it should be readily available everywhere. Add your name right now >>>
ATTN: SOUTH CAROLINA LEGISLATIVE REPUBLICANS
Check out our letter to the South Carolina GOP below, then sign it as is or add your own spin:
Make your voice heard
As you well know, abortion bans will not end abortion.
Instead, you propose penalties so extreme – so draconian – that they will terrify women into compliance.
Your goal was never to “protect life.” It is to control our bodies.
You should know: We won’t go back. We’ll fight back.
I’m signing this letter to voice my ongoing commitment to opposing any rollback of our human right to reproductive freedom.
Check out our letter to the South Carolina GOP, then sign it as is or add your own spin >>>
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Sign our open letter condemning the Don’t Say Gay law in Florida!
Make your voice heard
The cruel “Don’t Say Gay” law is harming Florida students, teachers, and families. Instead of expanding it, you should be repealing this attack on LGBTQ+ Floridians!
Despite your fear and hate-mongering, LGBTQ+ people — including kids — always have existed and always will. We will keep fighting for them to be treated with the respect and dignity they deserve.
We know that more of us are in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community than agree with your regressive and cruel legislation.
Women’s Marchers and our allies WON’T stop fighting for a world where all of us can be safe as our authentic selves. We WON’T let your hateful legislation stop us from supporting LGBTQ+ Floridians, and we condemn the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
Sign our open letter condemning the Don’t Say Gay law in Florida!
ADD YOUR NAME TO OUR DEMANDS TO PROTECT REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE ACCESS!
We demand reform of our broken judicial system. We demand that state and local leaders defend access to mifepristone despite this illegitimate ruling. We demand the FDA issue guidance to disregard the decision. We demand the Biden administration implement a whole-of-government response to this public health crisis. We demand pharmacies execute their mandate faithfully and with the health of their patients rather than the personal ideologies of a few politicians in mind.
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REMOVE CLARENCE THOMAS FROM THE SUPREME COURT
Congress must impeach Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas now!
Justice Clarence Thomas has violated his oath and broken the law by failing to disclose decades of luxury vacations and private jet travel from billionaire and GOP megadonor Harlan Crow. Crow also paid the private school tuition for a Thomas family member.
Sign our petition, stating loud and clear: No one is above the law, and Justice Thomas must be held accountable and removed from his position of power.
Sign our petition, stating loud and clear: no one is above the law and Justice Thomas must be held accountable and removed from his position
Alexia Moore was arrested under a Georgia law that bans abortions after detection of embryonic cardiac activity
Edward Helmore at The Guardian:
A Georgia judge set a $1 bond for a woman facing murder charges tied to allegations she used abortion pills to end a pregnancy, potentially paving the way for a possible reduction or dismissal of charges.
Alexia Moore, 31, was arrested by police in Savannah earlier this month on a warrant that echoed a 2019 Georgia law banning abortions after embryonic cardiac activity can be detected.
Moore was charged with murder after police determined she had been pregnant beyond six weeks “based on the medical staff’s knowledge that the baby had a beating heart and was struggling to breathe”.
Moore’s case is believed to be one of the first occasions of a woman being charged for terminating a pregnancy in Georgia since it passed a law banning most abortions and criminalized medical or hospital staff for aborting a fetus older than six weeks.
But superior court judge Steven Blackerby said during a bond hearing on Monday that he thought the charge to be “extremely problematic”, adding: “I have concerns that the state would ever be able to secure a conviction of malice murder.”
Moore had been incarcerated since her arrest on 4 March in Camden county. She was released on Monday after posting a bond of $2,001, including $1 for the murder charge and $1,000 each for two drug-related charges.
Under Georgia law, Moore would still need to be indicted by a grand jury before the murder charge can move forward.
Moore’s family told the Georgia news website the Current, that Moore, a US army veteran, who was arrested on 6 March, welcomed the decision to release her and interpreted the judge’s decision as favorable.
“Have you ever heard of someone having a murder charge with $1 bail?” said Rosalyn Jones, Moore’s biological mother. “From looking at the evidence, I’m not the judge or the jury. All I can see is God has given her favor, that’s all I know.”
Judge Steven Blackerby sets a $1 bail for Alexia Moore, who was arrested and jailed on “murder” charges for using abortion pills to end a pregnancy due to Georgia’s heinous anti-abortion law HB481.
See Also:
Abortion, Every Day (Jessica Valenti): What to Know When a Pregnancy Arrest Goes Viral
From constitutional frameworks down to local ordinances, the idea is to give anti-abortion activists the power to criminalize care, intimidate providers, surveil patients, and undermine basic civil liberties.
And let’s be clear: They’re not just barreling towards a future without abortion. Conservative lawmakers are chipping away at women’s ability to participate in the public sphere at all—attacking birth control, sex education, and workplace protections.
[...]
And that’s the thing: Though conservatives haven’t managed to reduce the number of abortions, they’ve been massively successful in pushing ahead with their broader agenda. They’re playing the long game, working on policies that will come to full fruition in years, not months.
Consider their efforts to quash the next generation of abortion providers: States are restricting what future doctors learn about abortion—whether by banning instruction on the procedure, ending partnerships with pro-choice training programs, or just relying on students being too intimidated by “aiding and abetting” laws to seek out such education on their own.
[...]
That’s not to say their legal strategy is all future-looking. Furious that the number of abortions has gone up and women are obtaining care despite state bans, conservatives are going all in on taking down abortion pills and telehealth.
Anti-abortion activists and legislators have taken what’s best described as a spaghetti-at-the-wall approach: major lawsuits to roll back FDA approval; attempts to revive the Comstock Act, and state legislation that classifies the pills as a controlled substance or makes providing them a felony.
They’ve been lobbying the FDA and Trump administration using junk science that says mifepristone is unsafe despite all credible evidence to the contrary, and—most recently—have launched a full-scale campaign to claim that abortion pills are poisoning the groundwater, harming the wildlife, and making women infertile.
It’s as desperate as it sounds. But with so many balls in the air, they’re sure to catch at least one.
Even with abortion more popular than ever, Republicans wasted no time after Dobbs diving into extremism: So-called "equal protection" bills that would punish patients as murderers were introduced in more than a dozen states this year—with increasing co-sponsors and decreasing pushback. Unable to get enough state legislators on board, the abortion ‘abolitionists’ behind these policies have started running in local elections. And winning.
States have also moved to punish people who help women cross state lines for care—targeting abortion funds, support networks, and even websites that share information about abortion. In Idaho and Tennessee, Republicans passed laws (being battled out in court) that criminalize lending a teen gas money to leave the state for an abortion, or texting them the url of a clinic.
Most offensively, lawmakers are doing all this while co-opting terms like ‘trafficking’ and ‘coercion’ to make it seem as if their efforts are all about protecting women. It’s an especially disgusting move given these same legislators will reject even the most nominal ‘exceptions’ for women’s lives or raped children.
The truth? Anti-abortion legislators and activists are intent on creating a culture of fear and punishment. Consider how some states have weaponized civil law—allowing citizens to sue anyone who ‘aids and abets’ abortion. The idea is to strip patients of any community support, sense of safety, or confidence that they can seek care without being snitched on.
And though conservatives are spending a lot of time taking out everyone around a patient, it’s only a matter of time before the attacks land squarely and regularly on those who have abortions.
In addition to the rise of ‘equal protection’ bills, Republicans have started to float restrictions on our right to travel and are increasingly pushing legislation to mandate the burial or cremation of pregnancy losses. Why? To open the door for arresting women. More than they already are, that is.
In the first year after Roe was overturned, more than 200 people were arrested on pregnancy-related charges. In just the last few months, we’ve seen a woman in Georgia arrested for her miscarriage, charged with ‘concealing a death’, and a Texas woman spend five months in jail for how she disposed of her miscarriage.
In the off chance any woman thought they might be able to lose their pregnancy or self-manage their abortion in peace, conservative lawmakers have redoubled attacks on medical privacy rules in order to access patient records, and ramped up their digital surveillance efforts—whether it’s accessing data from automated license plate readers or your private Facebook messages.
[...]
What ties all of this together? Fetal personhood—the idea that embryos, fetuses, and even fertilized eggs are constitutional human beings. This notion undergirds every bit of legal strategy, every bill, and every messaging move we’ve seen over the last three years.
Jessica Valenti wrote yet another solid piece on the harms of Dobbs 3 years after SCOTUS made that fateful ruling, with Republicans across America creating a war on women by inducing a culture of fear, punishment, and arrests.
