With confirmation vote nearing, Blanche promises to limit abortion, even where it’s legal
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told a religious group last week that he is working to restrict access to abortions nationwide — even in states where the procedure is legal.
In a call with leaders of the group, Intercessors for America, Blanche — whose nomination for the permanent attorney general’s job could come up in the Senate this week — said the Justice Department is “working hand-in-hand” with the White House and federal health agencies “to get permanent solutions so the Dobbs decision becomes permanent in every single state.”
He was referring to the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing abortion rights.
Undoing the Biden administration’s efforts to protect abortion rights is “taking longer than we want,” Blanche said, according to a leaked recording of his comments.
“We don’t have complete victory yet,” he said, “but we will have victory, and victory will be soon, and it will be permanent.”
Blanche hints at what could be coming
In a statement, the Justice Department said Blanche’s have been “mischaracterized.” The department said he was speaking about blocking the delivery of abortion drugs through the mail, “not a broader expansion of federal control over states.”
In 2023, the Biden administration ended a requirement for the abortion pill mifepristone to be dispensed in person. In May, the Supreme Court ruled that mifepristone can continue to be prescribed via telehealth visits and sent out by mail.
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Monthly abortion numbers have increased by roughly 10 to 20% nationwide since the Dobbs decision, according to the Society of Family Planning.
In the call, hosted by the White House Faith Office, Blanche did not say whether he planned to stop the distribution of mifepristone by invoking the Comstock Act, an anti-obscenity law from 1873 that criminalized the shipment of “obscene, lewd, lascivious or indecent” materials, including contraceptives.
However, he told the religious leaders: “If states have said, ‘We are going to protect the unborn and we’re going to protect every life from the moment of conception,’ we’re putting practices and policies in place so that other states and other organizations can’t attack that. They can’t do things like they’re doing with mailing mail-order drugs.”
Blanche’s comments contradict a promise President Donald Trump made on the campaign trail that he “will not block” access to abortion pills. He also, at the time, said he’d urged House Republicans to talk “correctly” on the issue by leaving it up to individual states and supporting exceptions to abortion bans.
Blanche also promised to attack “shield laws,” which some states have enacted to protect medical providers who prescribe abortion pills via telemedicine from being prosecuted in states where abortions are banned or strictly limited.
Even as about half the states have restricted abortion since the Dobbs decision, the number of abortions has increased nationwide, causing abortion opponents to seek additional federal action.
Impact on Blanche’s confirmation
It is unclear whether Blanche’s comments on abortion will affect his chances of being confirmed by the Senate. On Monday, with the hard-won backing of GOP Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance Blanche’s nomination. On Tuesday, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she will vote against Blanche’s confirmation. But she said her decision was based on not just the leaked phone call, but Blanche’s role in establishing the controversial and now-canceled “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
“While I believe Mr. Blanche is a capable lawyer, the Department of Justice has become increasingly political,” Collins said in a statement. “Mr. Blanche has taken several actions that have further eroded the Department’s independence, and that is the basis for my vote to oppose his confirmation.”
Blanche can only afford to lose no more than two Republican votes to be confirmed, since the GOP only has a slim 53-47 lead and Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell is still in the hospital. Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Bill Cassidy, R-La., have not yet said which way they will vote.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
