US bishops call Catholics to action as CatholicVote presses Trump on abortion pills

The leaders of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have issued a nationwide invitation calling Catholics to pray and take action against abortion pills through the end of October, as CatholicVote and other pro-life groups intensify pressure on President Donald Trump’s administration to restrict the drugs.

The invitation, posted July 27, bears the names of Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the USCCB, and Bishop Daniel Thomas of Toledo, chairman of the conference’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

The bishops are asking Catholics to seek the intercession of St. Joseph under the title “Defender of Life,” learn about the danger of abortion pills, and contact pharmacies and drugmakers involved in their distribution. The full action campaign will launch Aug. 18 and continue through Respect Life Month in October.

Kat Talalas, assistant director for pro-life communications of the USCCB’s Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, told OSV News that an online platform will let users send one message to multiple pharmacies, distributors, and drugmakers. The conference is also preparing materials distinguishing miscarriage care from abortion.

The campaign arrives at an increasingly tense moment between the Trump administration and pro-life leaders who helped re-elect the President. While the administration has taken other pro-life actions, it has left in place the Biden-era Food and Drug Administration policy that allows mifepristone prescribed by certified prescribers to be dispensed by mail through certified prescribers or pharmacies. It also approved a second generic version of the drug in September 2025 before completing a promised safety review.

Three days after the Sept. 30 FDA approval of the additional generic, CatholicVote CEO and President Kelsey Reinhardt joined a pro-life coalition demanding that the decision be reversed and that mifepristone be withdrawn from the market.

By February, Reinhardt was directing CatholicVote’s appeal to Trump himself. Before the State of the Union, she wrote, “We urge the President to rescind the previous administration’s telehealth expansion of mifepristone distribution.” She called chemical abortion the abortion industry’s “front line.”

The pressure grew after the Department of Justice asked courts to delay or dismiss challenges brought by pro-life states seeking to restore in-person dispensing requirements. In a Louisiana case, the DOJ acknowledged in January that studies of this kind often take a year or more, while saying the FDA intended to finish sooner. Pro-life critics warned that the timetable could nevertheless push regulatory action into 2027.

Reinhardt responded, “CatholicVote stands shoulder to shoulder with pro-life leaders who have rightly condemned this move.” 

When the DOJ sought a stay or dismissal in a separate lawsuit brought by Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas in March, she said the posture had raised concerns among Catholics and other voters in Trump’s coalition. If the litigation strategy was part of a broader plan, Reinhardt said, the administration needed to explain it, adding that “clarity and resolve matter.”

Abortion pills have become central to the post-Dobbs landscape. The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion research organization, estimated that U.S. clinicians provided 1.126 million abortions in 2025, 21% more than in 2020. Medication abortion accounted for 65% of clinician-provided abortions in 2023, up from 53% in 2020, and online-only clinics accounted for nearly one-quarter of clinician-provided abortions in 2025.

The U.S. bishops contend that mail-order distribution circumvents state laws, leaves women to undergo abortions without direct medical supervision, and creates opportunities for coercion by abusive partners or human traffickers. In June, Bishop Thomas warned that “the victory of the Dobbs decision risks being undone” by the influx of abortion pills.

Catholics can enroll through the USCCB’s Respect Life Prayer and Action program to begin receiving action materials Aug. 18.

Archbishop Coakley and Bishop Thomas closed their announcement by thanking Catholics for working to protect innocent children and vulnerable mothers: “St. Joseph, Defender of Life, pray for us!”