Ohio pro-life leaders demand crackdown on mail-order abortion pills after forced abortion case
Advocates and Republican lawmakers rallied outside a Toledo courthouse Sept. 22, saying a doctor’s six-month sentence for forcing abortion pills on his sleeping, pregnant girlfriend shows the drugs are too easy to obtain by mail.
Ohio pro-life advocates and Republican lawmakers rallied outside the Lucas County Courthouse in Toledo Sept. 22, demanding new restrictions on mail-order abortion pills after a judge sentenced a former University of Toledo surgical resident to six months in jail for forcing the drugs on his pregnant girlfriend.
Hassan-James Abbas, 32, was sentenced Sept. 11 by Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Joe McNamara after pleading no contest in May to four felonies: unlawful distribution of an abortion-inducing drug, disrupting public services, identity fraud, and deception to obtain a dangerous drug. Prosecutors dismissed abduction and evidence-tampering charges under the plea deal. McNamara sentenced Abbas to six months at the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio and two years of probation, warning that a violation could add 18 months in prison to his sentence.
“Your actions were incredibly selfish and horrible,” McNamara told Abbas at sentencing. “I’m glad you apologized to the victim. But the majority of your statement was about how your actions affected you. I find your conduct to just be self-centered.”
According to court records cited by Fox News, Abbas used his estranged wife’s identity to order mifepristone and misoprostol online in December 2024 after learning his girlfriend was pregnant and said she didn’t want an abortion. On Dec. 18, 2024, he crushed the pills and forced them into her mouth while she slept. She awoke to find Abbas pinning her down. When she attempted to call 911, he took her phone and hung up the call, records show. She was hospitalized, and in a related civil lawsuit said the drugs ended her child’s life — an allegation Abbas’ attorneys have disputed.
The State Medical Board of Ohio separately suspended Abbas’ medical license in November 2025, citing “clear and convincing evidence” that his continued practice posed “a danger of immediate and serious harm to the public.” Board records show Abbas admitted during a July 2025 interview to ordering the medication, using false identifying information, and administering the drug.
At the Sept. 22 rally, Center for Christian Virtue (CCV) President Aaron Baer called on political candidates to take a stand. “Everybody who thinks they deserve Ohioans’ votes needs to make it clear today whether they believe it’s OK for these dangerous and deadly pills to be available online and through the mail,” he said.
Former Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, now with Alliance Defending Freedom, cited federal data on the drug’s risks: “One in 25 women that use mifepristone, according to the FDA, end up in the ER,” he said, according to CCV. State Rep. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania Township, said he would push legislation in the Ohio General Assembly banning the abortion pill from being sent through the mail.
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, sent a letter Sept. 22 to Attorney General Todd Blanche asking the Department of Justice to review the case for possible federal charges and to move toward concluding Louisiana v. FDA, a lawsuit seeking to reinstate in-person dispensing requirements for mifepristone.
“It is hard for me to imagine a wickedness more significant than this,” Moreno wrote.
The Toledo case adds to a broader national fight over mail-order abortion pills, which were allowed under the Biden administration.
Zeale News reported this month that Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman accused the advocacy group Mayday Health of breaking state law by flying a banner reading “Abortion Pills By Mail” over the Kentucky State Fair, part of a civil investigation Coleman opened in January into the group’s advertising.
“Out of state activist groups who are targeting the vulnerable here should be on notice: Keep your illegal pills out of our Commonwealth or face the full weight of the Attorney General’s Office,” Coleman said upon opening the investigation. “These deadly and unlawful pills cannot be allowed to continue flooding into Kentucky through the mail, and we will thoroughly pursue every lead to hold bad actors accountable.”
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