Abortion opponents outraged by Trump’s attempts to dismiss another abortion pill case

For the second time this year, the Trump administration is seeking to at least delay another legal attempt to restrict access to medical abortion.

The U.S. Department of Justice delayed Friday afternoon asked a federal court in Missouri to stay or dismiss judgment in the case lawsuit in connection with last year’s decision of the US Food and Drug Administration to approve a novel drug generic brand mifepristone. The case, filed by attorneys general in Missouri, Idaho and Kansas, challenges other FDA regulations, including those allowing abortion medications to be prescribed via telehealth.

The Department of Justice filed, among other things, similar request in delayed January in a separate abortion pill lawsuit, Louisiana v. FDA, which primarily challenges the agency’s removal of the in-person dispensing requirement. A win for plaintiffs seeking a preliminary injunction waiting for the decisioncould significantly limit access to abortion drugs throughout the country.

In both cases, the Justice Department asked the courts to stay the cases while the FDA filed re-evaluates the abortion pill Mifepristonewhich has been found to be unthreatening and effective in many studies over the decades. Supporters suspect it was the administration ponderous FDA review until the midterm elections.

“Given this widespread debate about the safety of mifepristone, the FDA has concluded that it is best for the agency to conduct a review based on all the evidence it has,” Justice Department lawyers argue. in its Missouri filingnoting that they exist many related lawsuits. “Parallel proceedings would waste judicial resources because FDA’s own review may eliminate the need for the Court’s review.”

If he did not stay, the Justice Department asked the court to dismiss the Missouri case on other grounds, including the plaintiff’s lack of standing.

Several anti-abortion leaders condemned the action on social media. The movement is increasingly frustrated by the administration’s reluctance to reverse a Biden-era policy that allows abortion medications to be prescribed via telehealth.

“The pro-life movement has very simple demands,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, in a speech press release after submitting an application by the court. “At least this administration can and should mail them (abortion drugs). This is neither more nor less than the policy of the first Trump administration.”

A powerful anti-abortion lobbying group is trying to convince the Trump administration that ignoring the movement’s demands could hurt the GOP’s prospects in the midterm elections. “The world of Trump and Vance ignores this crisis at its own political peril,” Dannenfelser said, arguing that some of the most committed voters could wait out the midterms.

SBA Pro-Life America has already done this threatened to be diverted or stopped some of them declared an investment in the mid-term elections worth $80 million based on congressional votes on abortion-related issues. Asked if they had specific conditions for the administration before helping campaigns, Dannenfelser repeated her group’s demand in a written statement.

“The Trump-Vance administration must do its job and immediately restore the in-person prescription requirement,” she said.

It’s been almost a year since the US Department of Health and Human Services gave its approval, following: pressure campaignto study the safety of abortion pills, and the FDA estimates it could take another year to complete the study.

Late last year, Bloomberg reported that privately, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary told agency officials to postpone the safety review until after the November election.

An HHS spokesman did not confirm this, but directed the “States Newsroom” to the FDA website.

“As of February 2026, the FDA continues to work to collect robust and timely data that are necessary for a well-controlled study with adequate statistical power. The next steps in the mifepristone safety study will be data mining, data integrity assessment, and analysis implementation, validation, and review,” the article says government website with frequently asked questions about the drug. “In academia, conducting such research, including the appropriate steps described above, often takes about a year or more.”

Hundreds of studies Studies conducted before and since the FDA’s approval of mifepristone in 2000 have shown that an abortion regimen that includes a second drug, misoprostol, is associated with a low risk of solemn side effects. But anti-abortion groups argue otherwise based on research they have helped develop over the past few years.

This review was based on a non-peer-reviewed article funded by the conservative Center for Ethics and Public Policy. On Tuesday, the organization published approx novel paperwhich again suggests a gigantic number of side effects after taking medication abortion.

“I don’t think he’ll do anything else.”

After electing three judges to facilitate overturn federal abortion protections, President Donald Trump has stopped compact of making bolder commitments to the anti-abortion movement. Amid supporters’ demands, the administration does blocked Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood for a year. The the government also restored other federal subsidies was previously invalidated.

Trump has not yet met their demand to reverse Biden-era policies that made it easier to access abortion drugs. Some advocates say the administration has helped expand that access, in part by approving a novel generic brand of mifepristone and asking federal courts to delay lawsuits aimed at restricting employ of the abortion pill.

Trump recently faced criticism when he suggested the Republican Party should do it “flexible” on the Hyde Amendmentannually renewed policy that in most cases prohibits federal funding of abortion.

So far, the anger of abortion opponents has often been directed at federal agencies, but leading national anti-abortion groups have openly criticized HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and called for Macarius’ removal over the delay.

Students for Life America has blamed the Department of Justice in connection with a motion to dismiss the Missouri case.

“The Trump Department of Justice just filed a motion to resolve Missouri v. FDA,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America published on X on Friday: “Their excuse? We have to wait until the FDA completes its safety review.”

She called on the Department of Justice to enforce instead Comstock Acta mostly dormant law on sending “obscene” material, passed in 1873. This is a position also presented in the Missouri and Louisiana cases involving medical abortion and one Trump rejected in 2024.

But one leader of the anti-abortion movement who directly blames the president for his inaction is Abby Johnson, former director of a Planned Parenthood center in Texas and founder of And Then There Were None, which recruits former abortion health workers who are now advocating in legislatures and courts to ban abortion and treat it as homicide in the law.

“He promised them one thing, and that was to overturn Roe,” Johnson said. “And he did it, and I don’t think he’ll do anything else for the pro-life movement.”

She said she thinks Vice President J.D. Vance is sincerely opposed to abortion but “is paralyzed by Trump.” This opinion is shared by most members of the movement. Vance was selected as the first candidate to be the next Republican Party presidential nominee in: straw poll at Students for Life of America’s national pro-life summit in January.

But Johnson said Vance should still be tried for the administration’s actions.

“We also need to really consider what the Trump administration is allowing,” Johnson said. “What have they actually done to limit abortion? Nothing. Abortion rates have increased in the United States, where the administration is supposedly pro-life.”