Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri sharply questioned acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Wednesday over the Trump administration’s decision to maintain Biden-era abortion pill policies during a Senate confirmation hearing.
Hawley pressed Blanche on why the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not yet rolled back regulations implemented under former President Joe Biden. The rules in question, initially introduced in 2021 and finalized in 2023, removed the in-person requirement for obtaining abortion pill prescriptions, allowing healthcare providers to prescribe them entirely online and distribute them by mail.
Hawley argued that these federal regulations undermine state-level restrictions on abortion. He noted that Missouri and several other conservative states are currently locked in lawsuits against the federal government to defend their own state laws, a legal battle that has continued even after President Donald Trump took office.
“Under Joe Biden’s abortion rules, it doesn’t matter what your state law is, it doesn’t matter what the voters of my state do,” Hawley said during the hearing. “You could just mail in this abortion drug–no prescription, no follow-up visits for the mother, no medical support at all.”
Hawley suggested that the Trump administration temporarily reinstate the stricter FDA abortion pill rules from Trump’s first term while the agency formally reviews the current regulations. He pointed out that the current situation leaves conservative states legally opposing a Republican administration.
“That means that now, the state of Missouri, a Republican state, along with a number of other conservative Republican states, are in court against a Republican administration, fighting over Joe Biden’s abortion policy,” Hawley said, asking Blanche for a specific solution to resolve the legal standoff.
Blanche declined to detail ongoing legal strategies but emphasized that the administration opposes the Biden-era guidelines and is working through official agency channels to change them.
“I don’t want to talk about litigation strategy here, it’s not appropriate. We are not defending what Biden did and will not,” Blanche testified. “The FDA has a process that we’re letting them go forward in, and that — this is, again, in our briefing — takes a year. They’ve committed to do it in significantly less time than a year.”
Blanche added that any policy changes must be backed by thorough review to withstand inevitable court challenges. “Remember, we have to have studies that we can defend in court,” Blanche said. “Because we have to be able to say to a judge — probably in this district — that our change was not arbitrary and capricious.”
He assured the committee that the administration remains committed to anti-abortion priorities. “We very much believe that the Biden rules are wrong,” Blanche said. “And we will always–and when I say we, I’m not just saying the Department of Justice, I’m saying President Trump’s administration in its entirety–protect the life of the unborn and work with states to make sure we do that in the best way.”
Hawley also raised concerns regarding criminal cases involving forced abortions, where individuals have used mailed abortion pills to secretly terminate pregnancies without a woman’s consent. He asked if the Department of Justice would allocate federal resources to assist states in prosecuting these cases.
“I very much commit to looking at that. I share your concerns,” Blanche responded.
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