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Memos & Media Guidance
How Todd Blanche Can Weaponize the Nation’s Top Law Enforcement Agency Against Reproductive Freedom
TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Reproductive Freedom for All
RE: How Todd Blanche Can Weaponize the Nation’s Top Law Enforcement Agency Against Reproductive Freedom
DATE: August 11, 2026
How Todd Blanche Can Weaponize the Nation’s Top Law Enforcement Agency Against Reproductive Freedom
Todd Blanche was just sworn in as Trump’s U.S. Attorney General yesterday, putting one of his closest loyalists and former personal defense attorney in charge of the nation’s top law enforcement agency. His swearing in comes as anti-abortion groups intensify pressure on the administration to restrict abortion nationwide—and Blanche has already promised to help deliver.
The Attorney General directs federal litigation, sets enforcement priorities, and determines how the Department of Justice (DOJ) interprets laws affecting reproductive freedom. That authority gives Blanche powerful tools to threaten abortion access nationwide—even in states with strong legal protections—without new legislation from Congress.
Blanche’s predecessor, Pam Bondi, already used the DOJ to enact a range of dangerous, anti-abortion policies, including abandoning federal enforcement of life-saving emergency abortion care protections and cutting off federal funds for travel needed for abortion care. As Acting Attorney General, Blanche escalated that attack—firing career prosecutors responsible for FACE enforcement, issuing a sham report maligning their work, and rewarding a convicted clinic blockader with a seven-figure taxpayer-funded settlement.
Behind closed doors, Blanche has joined other top Trump appointees at HHS in handing far-right groups unprecedented influence to shape abortion policy from inside this administration. Just last week, Blanche promised anti-abortion extremists he would work “hand in hand” across the Trump administration to make the Dobbs decision “permanent in every single state.” He singled out shield laws that allow providers to mail mifepristone to states with bans, vowing that “victory will be soon, and…it will be permanent.”
It’s clear that far-right groups have an ally in Todd Blanche in their mission to ban abortion nationwide. Blanche’s new permanent role as AG could make that a reality through several avenues:
- Attack medication abortion through litigation. Missouri v. FDA (formerly AHM v. FDA)—seeks to roll back FDA actions that expanded access to mifepristone, including through telehealth and mail delivery. The DOJ is currently seeking dismissal of the case on procedural reasons, but Blanche could reverse the DOJ’s position and stop defending FDA’s evidence-based regulations, which could make it easier for states to obtain nationwide restrictions on mifepristone access—a significant threat given that medication abortion accounts for more than half of all abortion care in the United States.
- Misuse the Comstock Act. The DOJ could reverse its existing interpretation of the long-dormant law from 1873 and adopt a misinterpretation that criminalizes mailing abortion medication and supplies. Doing so would serve as a de facto national abortion ban that would even impact states with strong protections—fulfilling a top priority from Project 2025.
- Prosecute providers and people who help patients. The DOJ could open investigations targeting mifepristone’s manufacturer and organizations that share information about abortion pills. The department could also ramp up investigations and prosecute shield law providers who serve patients in ban states, as well as conspire with anti-abortion state attorneys general to punish people for providing abortion care, even if it’s legal where they are practicing.
- Refuse to defend the right to travel. The DOJ has previously taken the position that the Constitution protects the right to travel across state lines to obtain an abortion that is legal in another state. Under Blanche, the DOJ could abandon that position and decline to defend the constitutional right to cross state lines for care, or side with states seeking to punish those who help others travel.
- Weaken other protections. The DOJ could reinterpret or decline to enforce civil rights statutes that protect patients and providers—including Title VII, Title IX, the Violence Against Women Act, and the ACA’s nondiscrimination protections.
Todd Blanche has made clear where his allegiance lies: with Trump, Project 2025, and anti-abortion extremists—not with the people he is sworn to serve. As Attorney General, he could turn DOJ into one of the administration’s most powerful weapons for enacting a backdoor abortion ban.
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For over 55 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4.5 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.
Press Release Georgia