Moms.gov, Mifepristone, and an FDA Shakeup: Last Week in Abortion Rights

5.11.26 - 5.15.26

The REPRODUCTIVE POLICE STATE was in full effect last week: the Trump administration launched Moms.gov, a government-run website that helps the anti-abortion movement collect information on pregnant Americans. Not a joke: Moms.gov redirects users to Option Line—a massive data collection tool run by Heartbeat International, the country’s largest network of crisis pregnancy centers.

For years, privacy groups, abortion rights advocates, and Democratic legislators have warned that anti-abortion extremists use Option Line to collect sensitive information on vulnerable women. And as Abortion, Every Day has reported previously—they don’t exactly treat that information with care:

EXCLUSIVE: Health Data Breach at America’s Largest Crisis Pregnancy Org

This isn’t some accidental partnership—it’s been years in the making. Senate Republicans have long pushed to create a government-run website that funnels women to crisis pregnancy centers, floating names like life.gov and pregnancy.gov along the way. With Moms.gov, the White House just made those conservative dreams a reality. For American women? A nightmare.

By the way, that Moms.gov launch gave us a new ANTI-ABORTION GLOSSARY term: under-babied. Dr. Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, complained that “one in three Americans are under-babied.” He even defined the term for us: “you either don’t have any children or you have less children than you would normally want to have.”

Never thought I’d miss the days of JD Vance calling us “childless cat ladies”!

TELEMEDICINE ABORTION remains safe and accessible for now, thanks to a Supreme Court order last week that sent Louisiana v. FDA back to a lower court. The case is one of the most sweeping threats to abortion access in years: it aims to shut down telehealth prescriptions for abortion pills and dismantle the shield laws protecting providers who ship them across state lines. (Republicans are truly desperate to extradite blue state abortion providers into states where they can get life in prison.)

To get up to speed on everything that’s happened over the past two weeks, start here for a breakdown of the lawsuit and the Fifth Circuit ruling, then read this for the political fallout it sparked. And if you want to understand what the Supreme Court’s move actually means—and where this is all headed—check out the explainer Kylie and I put together on Friday:

Republicans Aren't Done With Mifepristone

Last week’s legal chaos wasn’t helped by a major SHAKEUP AT THE FDA: Commissioner Marty Makary “resigned” mere days after rumors that Donald Trump planned to fire him.

Anti-abortion leaders have been lobbying the White House to oust Makary for months, claiming he hasn’t been aggressive enough on mifepristone. Groups like Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America were also pretty pissed off when it came out that Makary was likely slow-walking the FDA’s ‘safety study’ of mifepristone until after the election.

I’m sure they’re much happier with Trump’s interim FDA chief—Kyle Diamantas, who immediately got on the phone with anti-abortion activists like Lila Rose of Live Action and Kristan Hawkins from Students for Life. Apparently he promised them that the government’s mifepristone review is a “top priority.”

Unfortunately, ATTACKS ON ABORTION PILLS don’t stop at the courts. Last week, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed legislation making the ‘trafficking’ of abortion medication a felony punishable by up to ten years in prison. And just like the law that passed in Mississippi, the language in Oklahoma’s legislation criminalizes “intent” to distribute abortion pills.

Then there’s South Carolina, where Republicans are trying to classify abortion pills as a controlled substance. The trend started in Louisiana and other anti-abortion states have been falling like dominoes ever since. This past week, the local NAACP publicly opposed H. 4760, noting that “regardless of where individuals stand on abortion, every South Carolinian should be troubled…”

In other STATE NEWS, anti-abortion legislators in Arizona are hiring their own private lawyers to defend state abortion restrictions—even though voters codified protections for abortion in 2024. What’s more, they’re not hiring the lawyers on their own dime: taxpayers will foot the bill.