Pro-Life Group Calls on Trump Administration to Enforce Comstock Act Against Mail-Order Abortion Pills
The Restoration of America Foundation (ROAF), a pro-life organization, released a report urging Attorney General Todd Blanche to enforce the Comstock Act, an 1873 federal law, to halt the mailing of abortion pills across state lines. The group estimates that nearly 15,000 medication abortions per month were provided under blue-state shield laws by June 2025, and that mail-order drugs were responsible for more than 300,000 abortions in 2025. The Biden administration's Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion in December 2022 concluding that the Comstock Act does not prohibit mailing mifepristone or misoprostol when the sender lacks intent that the drugs be used unlawfully.
Single source · Not corroborated
The Restoration of America Foundation released a report obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital calling on the Trump administration to withdraw the Biden-era Justice Department opinion on the Comstock Act and direct the DOJ to investigate and prosecute providers mailing abortion pills into states with abortion restrictions. ROAF CEO Doug Truax said the group timed the release to coincide with the 110th anniversary of Planned Parenthood's founding.
ROAF attributed growth in mail-order medication abortions in part to FDA policy changes made during the COVID-19 pandemic that suspended the in-person dispensing requirement and later made that change permanent, allowing mifepristone to be prescribed via telehealth and mailed to patients. The group argued that blue-state shield laws have enabled providers to ship pills into states with abortion bans without in-person examination or verification of the patient.
The report cited an insurance claims analysis that ROAF said found serious adverse health events following 10.9% of drug-induced abortions between 2017 and 2023 — a figure the group characterized as roughly 22 times the rate reported on the FDA-approved label for the mifepristone regimen. The rate reached 11.2% in 2023, according to the report. The methodology and provenance of the insurance claims analysis were not independently verified in the single source covering this story.