Grassroots pro-life activists organized by Americans United for Life (AUL) and Family Policy Alliance sent a letter to President Donald Trump on Jan. 29, urging his administration to tighten regulations on abortion drugs and reinstate in-person dispensing requirements. 

The letter, signed by 2,657 Americans from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., calls on the administration to direct the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to restore safety measures — including in-person screening, physician involvement, and follow-up care — that were rolled back under former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. 

Signatories argue that current rules allowing mail-order access to the chemical abortion drug mifepristone, which is responsible for more than half of abortions nationwide, expose women to medical risks and enable coercion and abuse.

In a press release emailed to Zeale, AUL Chief Executive Officer John Mize said the FDA has a responsibility to prioritize patient safety over politics. 

“Our message to the Trump Administration is simple: be a better protector of women’s health than the failed, partisan policies of his predecessor,” Mize said. “In-person dispensing requirements are commonsense and favorable among a supermajority of the public and should be restored without further delay.”

The letter, emailed to Zeale, cited polling showing that 71% of likely voters support requiring in-person visits before abortion drugs are provided to women. Since the Biden administration loosened the regulations in 2023, providers have been allowed to prescribe mifepristone via telemedicine and ship it by mail.

>> Report: Pro-abortion activists say mifepristone needs regulation <<

In outlining the consequences of the loosened regulations, the letter points to multiple criminal cases in which men were accused of secretly administering abortion drugs to partners. 

“Doing nothing on this drug is allowing, if not condoning, violence against women,” the letter stated.

Beyond concerns about coercion, the signatories argue that chemical abortions pose heightened medical risks to both unborn children and women when administered without in-person oversight. They cited studies suggesting that more than one in 10 women experiences complications.

“The chemical compound is just as deadly as surgical abortion,” the signatories wrote, “as it causes the unborn child to starve to death and endangers more than one in ten women to whom it is prescribed.”

In closing, they argued that the FDA’s rollback of safeguards has undermined the agency’s core mission.

“In short, the FDA exists to promote the health and safety of Americans,” the letter stated. “In the case of mifepristone, these bedrock principles — necessary not only for the trust of Americans, but also for the safety of women — have been undermined by political whims which obscured the growing evidence of mifepristone’s harm.”