Key leaders in the pro-life movement, once among President Donald Trump’s strongest backers, are openly criticizing the President and his administration for failing to restrict access to abortion drugs, despite Republican control of the White House and Congress.
Even though the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion remains widely available in the U.S., with mifepristone now accounting for roughly 3 in 5 abortions nationwide. Pro-lifers have argued in recent months that the Trump administration has done little to curb its use, leaving Biden-era rules in place that allow the drug to be prescribed online and shipped by mail — even into states with strict abortion bans.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, “Trump is the problem. The President is the problem.”
At the group’s April 29 spring gala, Dannenfelser warned that if Republicans stick to Trump’s strategy of leaving abortion policy to the states, “then the movement as we know it is finished,” the Journal reported. Her organization reportedly plans to spend $160 million during the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential primary, backing only candidates who commit to national-level pro-life action.
Dannenfelser made similar arguments in a Feb. 24 “State of the Unborn” speech, when she warned that the post-Roe landscape has exposed weaknesses in the GOP’s pro-life efforts, as Zeale News previously reported. She said the party’s state-by-state strategy “clearly does not work” because 20 pro-life states “can’t even enforce their laws because of mail-order abortion drugs.” The Trump administration could reinstate safeguards against abortion drugs and remove them from mail distribution “easily,” she argued.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice has asked courts to pause or dismiss multiple pro-life lawsuits from Republican states seeking to restore in-person dispensing requirements for abortion drugs. Pro-life advocates have also accused the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of slow-walking a promised safety review of mifepristone and quietly approving a new generic version of the drug in September 2025.
“This is just insulting, right? This is not what we voted for,” Marc Wheat, general counsel for Advancing American Freedom, said, according to the Journal.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, called the situation “unprecedented.”
“You have Republican states that are challenging a Republican administration over this because their laws are being undermined,” Perkins said, according to the outlet. “Pro-life voters are going to be wondering what’s going on when they head into the polls in November.”
On May 1, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked mail-order access to mifepristone, ruling in favor of Louisiana and reinstating in-person dispensing requirements nationwide. As Zeale News previously reported, the decision was widely hailed as a pro-life victory. But on May 4, the Supreme Court issued an administrative stay until May 11, putting the lower court’s ruling on hold and allowing mail delivery of mifepristone to resume while the justices consider emergency requests from drug manufacturers.
After the lower court ruling, Dannenfelser called it “shameful” that the Trump administration’s “inaction has forced pro-life states to take their battle to the federal courts,” according to the Journal.
Dannenfelser also called on Trump to fire FDA Commissioner Marty Makary in December 2025, and former Vice President Mike Pence called on Trump to fire Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, whom he described as a “progressive wolf in pro-life sheep’s clothing,” the outlet reported.
Dannenfelser described the White House as treating abortion as a political “third rail,” reportedly saying, “It’s very clear that the issue is perceived as the third rail, and you just have to stay away from it. You cannot utter the A-word.”
Asked about criticism from pro-life advocates, White House spokesperson Allison Schuster defended Trump’s record, calling him the “most pro-life and pro-family president in history,” the outlet reported.
“Since his first term, the President has been a proven leader in the pro-life movement,” Schuster said, “and he will continue to champion these policies to protect the sanctity of life.”