Study Finds 84% of Mail-Order Abortion Pills Going to States With Bans; Pro-Life Advocates Urge Trump Administration to Act

by Emmitt Barry, with reporting from Washington D.C. Bureau Staff

(Worthy News) – A new study has found that the vast majority of mail-order abortion pills shipped by a leading telemedicine provider have gone to women living in states where most abortions are banned–fueling calls from pro-life leaders for the Trump administration to intervene.

Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin reported this week that 99,283, or 84%, of 118,338 abortion pill prescriptions filled by the nonprofit Aid Access between July 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024, were sent to counties in 24 states with abortion bans.

The highest prescription rates per 10,000 women of childbearing age were in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas–all states with near-total abortion prohibitions.

“This clearly shows that groups like Aid Access are blatantly violating the state laws of multiple states and then hiding behind shield laws to avoid any liability,” said Dr. Christina Francis, an Indiana-based OB-GYN and CEO of the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Aid Access, the only organization openly shipping abortion pills to all affected states during the study period, relied on so-called “shield laws” in eight states–California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington–that protect telehealth providers from prosecution, even if their patients live in abortion-restrictive states.

The study, published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, comes amid growing frustration among pro-life activists over the Trump administration’s reluctance to block the interstate flow of abortion pills, despite the administration’s other high-profile pro-life actions–such as stripping federal funds from Planned Parenthood last month.

Michael New, a professor at The Catholic University of America and scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, called on the White House to make restrictions on chemical abortions a top priority:

“Faster, please. Placing limits on chemical abortions needs to be a top priority for pro-lifers.”

Rising Use of Chemical Abortions

Medication abortions–using the two-drug combination of mifepristone and misoprostol–now account for 63% of U.S. abortions, up from 53% in 2020 and just 24% in 2011, according to the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute.

Legal experts note that the Trump-led Food and Drug Administration could reverse a Biden-era policy that allows abortion pills to be prescribed without an in-person medical exam. That policy was enacted after the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling that returned abortion jurisdiction to the states, prompting many abortion clinics in conservative states to close.

“Restoring the previous safeguards needs to happen as soon as possible,” said Erik Baptist, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, which has sued to overturn the FDA’s mail-order policy.

Some pro-life attorneys argue that the Comstock Act of 1873–a federal law prohibiting the mailing of obscene materials–should apply to abortion drugs, effectively banning their shipment into states where abortion is illegal.

RFK Jr. Orders FDA Review Over Safety Concerns

The debate over abortion pills intensified this past May, when U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered the FDA to conduct a comprehensive safety review of mifepristone after new data suggested far higher complication rates than the agency’s official reports indicate.

“I think the new data is alarming, and clearly it indicates that at the very least, the label should be changed,” Kennedy told the Senate Health Committee on May 14.

The data–an analysis of insurance claims by the Ethics and Public Policy Center–found that about 11% of women who took mifepristone experienced serious complications, compared to the FDA’s official estimate of less than 0.5% based on clinical trials.

Kennedy tasked FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary with reviewing the findings and making recommendations to President Trump. Kennedy confirmed that any final policy decision would ultimately rest with the White House.

Political Crosscurrents

President Trump has so far remained silent on whether he supports restricting mail-order abortion pills, even as pro-life activists press for action. Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has emphasized letting states set their own abortion laws, but the cross-state shipment of abortion drugs via telemedicine raises thorny legal questions that transcend state boundaries.

Mary Ziegler, a legal historian at the University of California, Davis, noted that if the administration applies the Comstock Act to abortion pills, it could trigger major court battles:

“That could force the courts to clarify the law, but we don’t know if they want to do that.”

Meanwhile, the study found that telemedicine abortions are highest in the South and Midwest, particularly in high-poverty counties located more than 100 miles from the nearest abortion clinic–underscoring the persistence of demand even in states with strict bans.

“It seems that pregnant women, even in conservative states, can still access abortion drugs,” said Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law. “And there does not seem to be much of an appetite to prosecute any crimes at the federal level.”

Reporting contributed by Worthy News staff and wire services.

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