Earlier this month, the Trump administration had a conversation with the Department of Justice about women’s health.
It wasn’t that they decided to listen to doctors about how many women are dying because of abortion bans. It wasn’t that they realized politicians shouldn’t be making decisions about what we do with our own bodies.
Nope, it was simply that they wanted to pause all of that until after November 3rd. “Once the midterms are over and it’s truly lame-duck time, we’ve heard the gloves will be off,” reported one source, a conservative in touch with the administration.
Todd Blanche, who was confirmed as the US Attorney General in August, has long been against abortion rights. In his confirmation hearing, he said he opposed the abortion pill Mifepristone being available by mail. He intends to use the Comstock Act, an 1873 law that prohibits sending anything “obscene or indecent” through the mail, to make Mifepristone illegal.
For almost a century, the Comstock Act was the reason that birth control couldn’t be sent through the mail. According to a strict interpretation of the law, birth control and abortion couldn’t even be discussed through the mail. Congress removed the language about birth control in 1971 so that women could receive the medication they needed through the postal service.
But because Congress didn’t also remove the language about abortion at the same time, Todd Blanche thinks he can use a 150-year-old bill to keep women from getting the care they need. Not only could doctors not mail Mifepristone to patients who need it, drug manufacturers could be banned from even sending the pills (or surgical tools, or anything else used for abortions) to doctors in the first place.
Mifepristone does have other valid uses besides abortion care, which is why the Department of Justice ruled in 2022 that the Comstock Act didn’t apply. But Todd Blanche wants to change that. This summer, he told a group of faith leaders that he was working to ensure abortion was banned “in every single state.”
… just, you know, not until November 4th.
And the Comstock Act isn’t the Trump administration’s only line of attack on reproductive rights. They’re also looking at new “morality” rules for doctors, changes to Title X, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and the Affordable Care Act. They’ll stop at nothing to keep us from the healthcare we need, want, and deserve.
So if it seems like chatter has quieted down about abortion rights on the federal level, don’t be fooled. They know that abortion access is popular across the country, with Americans voting for reproductive freedom on ballot measures nearly every time they’re given the opportunity. Anti-choice extremists haven’t stopped — they’re just waiting.
In the November 2026 election, voters in four states (Idaho, Nevada, Missouri, and Virginia) will vote on ballot measures about abortion rights. With extremists like Todd Blanche in Washington right now, our best line of defense for women’s healthcare is at the state and local level. And hopefully, with a big enough blue wave, we can start changing things at the federal level too. 🌊
The corrupt doj wants to restrict women’s rights for bodily autonomy and won’t release the Epstein files!