Quote:Although Trump claims he wants to leave abortion to the states, the reality is that abortion policy is set, in substantial part, at the federal level. Even if he rejects a congressional push for a new ban, which is uncertain, his appointees will still have the tools to enact devastating anti-abortion policies. Former and future Trump administration officials have, after all, spent the past few years plotting a scheme to impose sweeping restrictions on reproductive health care through executive action alone. They are now well positioned to set their plan, largely outlined in Project 2025, into action. And we have every reason to believe that Trump will let them do it.

There are two main paths of attack. First, the Food and Drug Administration can revoke approval of mifepristone, the first drug in a medication abortion. Nearly two-thirds of women currently use medication to terminate their pregnancies, and it has proved incredibly safe and effective. The FDA first approved mifepristone in 2000 and has steadily removed restrictions on it since; today the agency allows providers to mail the pill directly to women without an in-person visit. And although the drug is generally banned in states that prohibit abortion, blue states have set up “shield laws” that allow their providers to prescribe and mail it to red-state patients.

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[The second being] the Comstock Act, a very real threat under a Trump-controlled Department of Justice. Congress enacted this archaic law in 1873 as part of a fit of puritanical panic against women’s rights. On its face, the law makes it a crime to mail any “article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion,” as well as any “drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for producing abortion.” The Biden administration has interpreted the law to bar only the mailing of drugs intended for illegal use. But several Trump-appointed judges have disagreed, and 20 Republican state attorneys general have already asserted that mailing medication abortion is always a crime. If that’s correct, then mailing mifepristone or misoprostol is unlawful.

Quote:Though I have to wonder how they would enforce such a law. Are they going to be opening packages?

Quote:First, it has long been recognized that the Fourth Amendment permits the warrantless opening of mail under “exigent circumstances.” The Supreme Court has stated that “[t]he need to protect or preserve life or avoid serious injury is justification” for a warrantless search….