A large national opinion survey just released on Tuesday challenges assumptions – and FDA inaction – around abortion after Dobbs. We knew that Americans haven’t just quietly accepted the Wild West of unaccountable mail-order abortion drugs without so much as a fig leaf of protection for women’s safety, ushered in by the Biden administration. What’s surprising is the extent to which liberals, conservatives, and voters of every type in between agree.
There is relatively little good polling on abortion drugs and the policy issues surrounding them, despite their prevalence as the method used in over 60% of abortions in the U.S. today (according to a pro-abortion advocacy group’s estimate).
In 2023, CRC Research found the FDA’s insistence that mail-order abortion drugs are safe is tied to distrust of the FDA. Marist polls commissioned by the Knights of Columbus have regularly found more than 6 in 10 Americans – 63% in the most recent poll released in January of this year – oppose their distribution without an in-person doctor visit.
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But several “mainstream” polls in 2023 focused on the binary question of whether mifepristone should be legal and on the market or not – a question that was already inapplicable to the court cases that were making news at the time, as the 5th Circuit had declined to block mifepristone’s FDA approval on technical grounds and the merits of that approval would not be considered by the Supreme Court.
In August, McLaughlin & Associates – a firm that has notably been consulted by Donald Trump for more than a decade – surveyed 1,600 likely 2026 general election voters, with a +/- 2.5% margin of error. Their questions examined many more facets of abortion drug policy than are covered in a typical poll. Some of their key findings include:
- 7 in 10 voters – including 57% of liberal voters – approve of requiring a doctor visit to receive a prescription for abortion drugs.
- 8 in 10 say no one should be able to get abortion drugs online or from a foreign country and be able to give them to a woman without her knowledge or consent.
- 9 in 10 think FDA drug labels should be required to accurately report the real-world impact of a drug on the patients who take it.
- 7 in 10 approve of requiring doctors to screen for and report signs of coercion or abuse before prescribing abortion drugs.
- Nearly 3 in 4 voters agree ensuring in-person medical care, including a doctor visit, is a matter of informed consent and not infringing on women’s rights.
In a media call organized by SBA Pro-Life America on Wednesday, pro-life leaders discussed the implications of the poll and called on the Trump administration to roll back the lax mail-order policies Biden introduced, ostensibly because of COVID-19, and reimplement the stronger safeguards that were in place during President Trump’s first term.
Tim Edson, an SBA Pro-Life America alumnus and a former political director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, highlighted the uncommon level of cross-partisan consensus against mail-order abortion drugs – noting that, while nearly 80% of Trump voters agree doctor visits should be required, so do 63% of those who voted for Kamala Harris (though that definitely wouldn’t have been obvious from her campaign). Voters don’t see the issue as “pro-life versus pro-choice,” but rather, a matter of prudence for public health and safety.
Joining the call by phone, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) emphasized a key point: the Dobbs decision was supposed to return the power to protect life to the people and elected representatives, but while more than 21 states have enacted broad protections for babies and mothers, the FDA continues to impose a mail-order drug policy that undermines those laws. He expressed disappointment that he has not yet gotten a response to his inquiries.
Lyndsey Sikes, director of Life Choices Pregnancy Resource Center in Louisiana, shared the shocking development that abortion drugs are being sold on the street in her area, and her center is on the front lines of the devastating fallout. Similarly, in a case in Illinois, a man allegedly confessed to slipping abortion drugs to his girlfriend that he purchased for $50 from “a girl on campus.”
Abortion advocates have long used the talking point that abortion is a matter “between a woman and her doctor” alone. But their reckless abandonment of safety standards has taken doctors out of the process. Today countless abortions are between women and their ex-boyfriends or traffickers, ordered via sketchy websites, leaving them at a loss for where to turn when they suffer harm.
Senator Bill Cassidy (R.-La.) – a medical doctor – explained why there is simply no replacement for in-person care when it comes to screening for abuse, or for potentially deadly conditions like ectopic pregnancy, and because of the elevated risk of complications like hemorrhage, infection, sepsis or the need for surgery.
Cassidy notes that, although the federal government has been in a prolonged shutdown, he and his Republican colleagues are still looking for answers from HHS and the FDA – and soon.
Reining in mail-order abortion drugs is a winning issue across the political spectrum, and that’s good news. But for pro-life voters, says SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser, there is a significant risk of demotivation from seeing the progress of Dobbs undermined without action from the administration.
For the FDA, Dannenfelser has a clear, direct message:
“Wake up…do your job.”
