Acting attorney general vows to protect state pro-life laws, make Dobbs ‘permanent in every single state’

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told faith leaders during a recent private call that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is working to make the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade “permanent in every single state.”

“We’re working to get solutions so that the Dobbs decision becomes permanent in every single state,” Blanche said during the call, which was hosted by the White House Faith Office and posted online July 30 by the religious group Intercessors for America. 

Blanche said the DOJ’s efforts are focused on preventing abortion providers and officials in states that allow abortion from undermining pro-life laws enacted elsewhere.

“That means that 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, and they can’t do things like mail order drugs,” Blanche said.

He said the effort “takes a lot of time,” which is why the administration does not “have complete victory yet.” But he added that “we will have victory, and victory will be soon, and it will be permanent.”

Politico reported that when it asked the DOJ to elaborate on Blanche’s remarks, the department said Blanche was speaking specifically “with respect to mail order abortion drugs.” Organizers said before the call that it was not intended for “press purposes” and was “not on the record,” according to the outlet.

Blanche’s remarks came days before the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-10 along party lines on Aug. 4 to advance his nomination for attorney general to the full Senate. Blanche has led the DOJ in an acting capacity since Pam Bondi was removed from the position in April. President Donald Trump nominated Blanche for the role in June. According to NBC News, the Senate is expected to vote on Blanche’s nomination later this week. 

Since the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, some states have nearly outlawed abortion or enacted other pro-life measures, while others have expanded access to abortion.

Several pro-abortion states have also enacted “shield laws” intended to protect physicians and abortion providers who prescribe abortion drugs through telehealth and mail them to patients in states where abortion is prohibited. Officials in pro-life states have argued that the “shield laws” allow providers to circumvent their pro-life laws without facing legal consequences.

The dispute has fueled litigation over the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Biden-era rules permitting mifepristone — the first drug in the two-drug regimen used in chemical abortions — to be prescribed remotely and distributed by mail. 

Louisiana sued the FDA in October 2025, arguing that the agency’s removal of the in-person dispensing requirement allowed abortion drugs to enter the state in violation of Louisiana law. The DOJ subsequently asked the Supreme Court to keep the FDA’s existing rules in place while the agency conducts an ongoing review, drawing criticism from pro-life advocates who noted in January that the review could take a year or more to complete. The Supreme Court on May 14 declined to immediately restore in-person safeguards for mifepristone while the lawsuit continues in lower courts, Zeale News previously reported. 

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The DOJ similarly moved in March to dismiss or pause a separate lawsuit brought by Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas that is also seeking to restore safeguards on mifepristone. 

CatholicVote joined a coalition of 78 pro-life groups in April urging the DOJ to change course and stop opposing state challenges to the FDA’s abortion-drug policies. As Zeale News previously reported, the coalition called on Blanche to use his “new position to reverse the DOJ’s harmful stance of siding with the abortion drug industry.”

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