Abortion Pills Are Winning—Republicans Are Furious

12.9.25

Click to skip ahead: Telehealth For the Win reports that abortion pills provided via telehealth now make up 27% of American abortions. In FDA Fury, anti-abortion groups are NOT happy about the FDA slow-rolling a ‘safety study’ on mifepristone. In the States, news from South Dakota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, and more. Louisiana’s Anti-Abortion Surgeon General introduces you to Dr. Evelyn Griffin. In the Nation, the CDC has delayed its abortion report, and the latest in attacks on IVF. Finally, Care Crisis shares a new report on independent abortion clinics.

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Telehealth For the Win

New data shows telehealth now accounts for nearly 30% of American abortions—a reminder that bans largely aren’t stopping people from getting care, and that the stakes in conservatives’ war on abortion pills are only getting higher.

The Society of Family Planning’s latest #WeCount numbers show that in the first six months of 2025, 27% of abortions were provided via telehealth, more than half of those telehealth abortions were provided under shield laws, and that abortion pills shipped by shield state providers accounted for nearly every abortion in banned states.

Just so we all understand how drastically the access landscape has changed: consider that during the same period in 2022, only 5% of abortions were provided via telehealth.

This is why conservatives are so pissed off about abortion pills! Medication abortion—and shield state providers, specifically—are helping women circumvent state bans. They’re also why the abortion rate hasn’t decreased since the end of Roe. In fact, abortions have gone up.

#WeCount notes that the monthly average for abortions in 2025 is 98,800—up from 79,600 in 2022. Something else to keep in mind: these numbers are probably on the low side, because the study doesn’t account for the abortions that are happening outside of the formal healthcare system—like when women buy pills from a website without consulting with a provider.

As law professor David Cohen told The New York Times today, “The reality is people are getting abortions, people are providing abortions, and the post-Dobbs environment is not stopping them.”

We should consider these numbers a huge win. The abortion rights and healthcare communities have come together to ensure patients can get the care they need despite Republicans’ draconian and dangerous laws. And while (of course) not everyone has been able to access the abortions they want, this data paints a promising picture of just how determined providers, patients, and activists are.

It’s also a vital reminder of just how important it is that we protect access to pills—telehealth especially.

FDA Fury

Speaking of abortion pills and telehealth: anti-abortion organizations are furious right now because FDA Commissioner Marty Makary reportedly directed officials to delay the agency’s bogus ‘safety study’ of mifepristone until after the midterm elections. Which is…telling.

We don’t know whether Makary was prompted by the White House or not, but it’s clear that the Trump administration knows full well abortion restrictions are some of the most unpopular laws in America.

Remember, the FDA and HHS are under massive pressure from the anti-abortion movement to restrict mifepristone—especially to eliminate telehealth access. That’s why back in September, Makary and RFK Jr. promised their agencies would conduct a safety review of abortion pills. Yesterday’s news that they’re slow-rolling the report, however, makes it seem like the administration is just trying to get anti-abortion activists off their backs.

No luck of that anytime soon! The country’s biggest anti-abortion groups are now calling for Makary to be replaced.

Lila Rose of Live Action blasted the FDA chief on social media, saying if Makary won’t “protect children and mothers he should be fired.” And Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America president Majorie Dannenfelser said, “The FDA needs a new commissioner who will immediately reinstate in-person dispensing as it existed under President Trump’s first term.”

The White House, however, is backing the FDA chief. Spokesperson Kush Desai told The Hill that the administration has the “utmost confidence” in Makary, and that he’s “working diligently to ensure that Americans have the best possible, Gold Standard Science study of mifepristone.”

The last thing we need is a federal review of abortion medication—both because we already have decades of credible research showing mifepristone is safe and effective, and because we know what the Trump administration considers ‘gold standard science’. 💩

UPDATE: Right before we were about to hit send, Makary gave an interview to the ultra-conservative Daily Signal insisting that the FDA is conducting a “robust study” of mifepristone. We’ll dig into what Makary said, and tell you what he really means tomorrow.

Anti-Abortion Glossary

Let’s talk about how conservatives are redefining ‘miscarriage’. (They’re already trying to redefine ‘abortion’, so are you really surprised?)

The short version is that Republicans are increasingly codifying the lie that ‘miscarriage’ only refers to pregnancies where the ‘heartbeat’ has stopped. In fact, we’ve seen this in pretty much every state with an abortion ban: conservative lawmakers will say their bans allow miscarrying women to get care, but the actual legislation will specify that treatment is only permitted to “remove” a “dead” fetus or a pregnancy where the fetal heartbeat has stopped.

The truth is that miscarriage is a process—one that can happen over days or weeks. The longer a woman goes without appropriate care, the greater her risk of infection.

After all, think about the most common post-Roe horror stories: they’re often about women developing life-threatening infections and sepsis after being denied miscarriage care—because a fetal heartbeat was still present. In other words, this fake definition is hurting and killing women.

Republicans need voters to believe that their abortion bans don’t endanger women, and that miscarriage patients can get legal care. We can’t let them get away with that lie. Whenever an anti-abortion legislator introduces a bill and claims it allows for miscarriage treatment, journalists, Democrats, and constituents should be asking them what, exactly, they mean by ‘miscarriage.’

In the States

Just yesterday we told you that Mayday Health is advertising abortion pills in South Dakota gas stations. Well, it appears the state’s Republican leadership doesn’t like that very much: Gov. Larry Rhoden is asking state Attorney General Marty Jackley to investigate the group and whether their ads violate the state’s ban.

In a letter to Jackley, Gov. Rhoden writes that “South Dakota has the most pro-life laws in the nation” and that the ad campaign “threatens the lives of children yet to be born in our state.” The Republican governor claims the campaign—which advertises abortion pills available in all 50 states—could be illegal under the state’s telemedicine ban, or could qualify as a “deceptive trade practice.”

AG Jackley says, “If laws have been broken, we will take appropriate action.”

Good luck with that! This isn’t the first time Mayday Health has come under fire by a Republican attorney general: in September, Kentucky’s attorney general claimed to be “reviewing” a similar campaign from the organization, and Arkansas’ attorney general sent the group a cease-and-desist letter in July.

And while Republican lawmakers have been trying to pass legislation to outlaw pro-choice websites and ads, they haven’t made any headway. You know, because of a little thing called free speech!

Want a perfect example of Republicans’ language game around ‘miscarriage’? Look no further than Wisconsin, where conservative lawmakers proposed legislation to ‘clarify’ that the definition of abortion doesn’t include treatment for miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies.

We’ve seen similar bills across the country—’clarifying’ legislation Republicans say will make it easier for doctors to provide medically-necessary care. Wisconsin Sen. Romaine Quinn told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that his bill “would ensure women receive the treatment they need without confusion or delay.”

“The law already protects necessary medical care, and my legislation makes those protections even clearer,” he said.

But even a cursory glimpse of the bill shows that’s just not true: Senate Bill 553 only allows for the “removal” of “dead” embryos and fetuses, excluding miscarrying women whose pregnancies still have a heartbeat. As AED noted when we first covered this bill last month: if the concern was patient safety, lawmakers wouldn’t have made the dangerous distinction.

No wonder Wisconsin Republicans are so pissed off at Sen. Kelda Roys—who has been calling out their bill for what it really is. (ICYMI: we wrote last week about Roys’ new bill, which would decriminalize pregnancy outcomes.)

Moving onto Ohio, AED reported last week that the state may be slow-rolling licensing approval for abortion clinics: the ACLU of Ohio and the Reproductive Rights Law Initiative are suing the state health department to find out why it took seven months to approve one clinic’s application to provide procedural abortions. This week, the Ohio Capital Journal has details on the suit—complete with a timeline of all the different ways Ohio tried to hold up the Toledo Women’s Center. The groups are asking the state Supreme Court to intervene.

Finally, we just had to flag this absolutely bananas op-ed in The Detroit News that suggests a Democratic lawmaker shouldn’t have a say in abortion policy because she can’t have children.

AED reported last week that Michigan Republicans are pushing a bill that would force doctors to ask abortion patients invasive questions—and then report their answers to the state. Columnist Kaitlyn Buss supports the measure, and slams pro-choice lawmakers for trying to “keep the state in the dark” about abortions. But it’s what she wrote about Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, in particular, that stopped us in our tracks:

“Pohutsky publicly announced in February that she underwent a sterilization surgery to prevent her from becoming pregnant during President Donald Trump’s administration, which calls into question her presumed bona fides on the topic.”

Opinion writers are certainly entitled to criticize politicians, but what a shitty thing to write. From what we understand, The Detroit News is a conservative outlet—but surely they should have some standards??

Quick hits:

• The Indiana Capital Chronicle has more on the ruling protecting Indiana abortion reports from being made public records;

• A Maine judge has ruled that a buffer zone violates an anti-abortion activist’s free speech rights;

• A column at the Missouri Independent slams Missouri’s first female attorney general for suing to restrict mifepristone;

• And a new Illinois law going into effect in January allows pharmacists to dispense an expanded set of contraceptives without a doctor’s prescription.

Louisiana’s Anti-Abortion Surgeon General

Well, this is terrible: New Orleans Public Radio reports that Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has named Dr. Evelyn Griffin—an anti-abortion, anti-vaccine maniac—as the state’s new surgeon general.

How bad is Griffin? Well, she’s an OBGYN who actually testified in favor of the state’s abortion ban. So settle in, and try not to throw your laptop across the room.

Griffin insists Louisiana’s abortion ban doesn’t endanger women’s health or limit doctors’ ability to care for pregnant patients, and she appears to have a long-standing relationship with Louisiana Right to Life. The anti-abortion group coordinated a letter from physicians supporting the ban that Griffin signed, and she gave the organization a lengthy interview back in 2022.

Louisiana Right to Life seems to have removed the interview from its website—but we found it elsewhere, and it’s chock full of incredibly dangerous misinformation. Griffin claims that miscarriage treatment and ending an ectopic pregnancy aren’t really abortions. She also insists that D&Cs are allowed for miscarriages because doctors are just removing “dead tissue.” (Yet another reminder that Republicans’ fake definition of miscarriage is spreading far and wide.)

When asked about pregnant women with cancer who might want to treat their illness with radiation or chemotherapy, Griffin says hospitals have an “ethics committee” that can decide what kind of care is “appropriate” for patients. Finally, she recommends anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers as credible places where pregnant women should seek care.

It’s easy to dismiss this as run-of-the-mill anti-abortion bullshit—but remember: this is the state’s top public health official. Griffin will help shape healthcare policy, advise state agencies, and her office will likely be involved in maternal mortality data collection, too.

In a moment when conservatives are working overtime to convince Americans that CPCs can replace real reproductive health clinics—and that abortion bans don’t hurt or kill women—I can’t imagine a more dangerous appointment for Louisiana women.

In the Nation

We may have gotten new abortion data from #WeCount this week, but we’re still waiting on official abortion numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In fact, the CDC hasn’t published a full year of abortion data since the end of Roe.

CNN reports that the agency’s abortion report has been pushed back thanks to internal “turmoil”—with the Trump administration’s HHS pointing the finger at the CDC’s former Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Debra Houry. Houry, however, notes that the major federal layoffs didn’t leave them with enough staff to do the job.

The CDC came under fire last year, too, when ProPublica reported that the agency hadn’t asked states to track deaths that could be related to abortion bans.

We’ll keep you updated as we learn more about the CDC numbers and when they’re expected to come out—but it’s worth remembering that the government’s abortion data was always somewhat limited. So even when it is released, we shouldn’t look at it as the definitive last word.

Last week, AED reported that House Speaker Mike Johnson is working behind the scenes to block IVF coverage for active-duty service members. Ever the ghouls, anti-abortion groups are celebrating the news.

Over the last year, anti-abortion activists have gotten more comfortable going mask-off against IVF—openly opposing fertility treatments and even claiming “more pre-born lives are lost in IVF than abortion.” Republican politicians, however, continue to publicly walk a careful line on the issue. (For instance, Trump campaigned on universal IVF access only to dramatically water that stance down later at the behest of anti-abortion groups.)

A spokesperson for Johnson claimed the Speaker supports IVF when “it is done responsibly and ethically,” but that’s a common line from conservatives who oppose IVF but don’t want the backlash. In other words, they’re hiding their extremism—but not that well.

Finally, because the horror of this administration knows no bottom, the Department of Justice plans to end prison rape protections for trans and intersex people in prisons, jails, and youth detention facilities.

There are no words.

Quick hits:

• Reproductive Freedom for All has announced their slate of 2026 endorsements for U.S. Senate;

• International outlets are rightly horrified by America’s pregnancy criminalization;

• And The 19th debunks the conservative claim that women are emotionally harmed by abortion.

Care Crisis

Under the second Trump administration and GOP-controlled Congress, abortion providers have been up against unthinkable barriers. A new report from the Abortion Care Network (ACN) documents just how stark those hurdles have been.

ACN, an organization supporting independent providers across the country, reports that 23 independent abortion clinics have shuttered this year alone. Since the end of Roe, 100 brick-and-mortar independent clinics have closed.

This is no small thing: when independent clinics close, communities—and even entire regions—lose access to health services they can’t access elsewhere. After all, independent clinics are the cornerstone of access, especially when it comes to access after the first trimester: independent clinics make up 63% of clinics that provide abortion past the first trimester, 85% of clinics that provide care at or after 22 weeks, and 100% of clinics that provide abortion after 26 weeks of pregnancy.

ACN’s report names just a few of the challenges independent clinics face—from federal ‘defunding’ legislation and anti-abortion violence, to the looming threat of ICE raids discouraging immigrant patients from seeking care.

And all this is happening at the same time that anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers are raking in record-breaking amounts of state funding. (The watchdog group Reproductive Health & Freedom Watch projects that they’ll make over $2.5 billion in revenue in 2025.)

Later this month, we’ll share more on what independent clinics are up against, the indispensable work they do, and why it’s so essential they remain open. For now, consider supporting ACN’s Keep Our Clinics campaign.