Family Council Asks U.S. Attorney’s Office to Enforce Federal Law Against Mail-Order Abortion Drugs

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On Friday, Family Council sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas respectfully asking the office to enforce federal law as it applies to mail-order abortion drugs.

Arkansas law generally prohibits abortion except to save the life of the mother, and it is a crime for an abortionist to mail abortion drugs like RU-486 into the state.

But under President Biden, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration loosened its safety protocols to allow mail-order abortion drugs. Pro-abortion states have also enacted “shield laws” for abortionists who mail abortion drugs into states like Arkansas.

All of that has created a dangerous industry of mail-order abortion in Arkansas and across the nation.

However, the federal Comstock Act of 1873 makes it a crime to mail “every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion.” Family Council’s letter to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas argues that the federal Comstock Act should prevent abortionists in other states from mailing abortion drugs into Arkansas in violation of state law.

The letter says:

“Since the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization returned abortion policy to the states, a disturbing workaround has emerged: the mass mailing of mifepristone directly to patients across state lines, including into states where the people’s elected representatives have enacted strong protections for unborn children.

“Arkansas Code Annotated §§ 5-61-304 and 5-61-404 prohibit abortion except to save the life of the pregnant woman in a medical emergency, and Arkansas Code Annotated § 20-16-1504 says it is unlawful for ‘any manufacturer, supplier, physician, or any other person to provide any abortion-inducing drug via courier, delivery, or mail service.’ The Arkansas General Assembly enacted these laws via the legislative process. However, Aid Access, Plan C, and a constellation of other organizations openly advertise the shipment of mifepristone into states where abortion is restricted or prohibited. This is not a secret operation. It is a deliberate, coordinated effort to circumvent the democratic decisions of states like Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and others that have enacted protections for the unborn. These providers are not merely skirting state law; they are willfully violating federal law.”

Family Council has also recently joined amicus briefs in federal court arguing that mail-order abortion drugs violate the Comstock Act.

Abortion drugs should not be available at all — much less through the mail.

We now know drugs like mifepristone and misoprostol are much more dangerous than the FDA originally thought.

A recent study by the experts at the Ethics and Public Policy Center found nearly 11% of women experienced serious health complications from abortion pills — including sepsis, infection, and life-threatening hemorrhage.

These drugs hurt women and end the lives of unborn children. That’s why we hope our federal officials will take the necessary steps to stop the flow of dangerous abortion drugs across state lines.

You can read the entire letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office here.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Family Council Joins Letter Urging Congressional Leaders Not to Fund Abortionists

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Above: Planned Parenthood’s facility in Little Rock. Since 2022, the center no longer performs abortions, but it does refer women to abortion facilities in other states. Planned Parenthood’s affiliates nationwide have received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding over the years. File Photo from 2020.

On Wednesday, Family Council joined more than 50 other pro-life leaders and organizations in a letter calling on Congress not to fund abortionists.

In 2025, Congress placed a moratorium on funding for abortionists, and since then many abortion facilities have closed because they no longer receive federal tax dollars.

But the moratorium is scheduled to expire in July. If Congress does not extend it, abortionists and their affiliates could be eligible for taxpayer funding once again.

The letter Family Council signed points this out, saying:

Planned Parenthood is a prime example of how the abortion industry fills its coffers through taxpayer dollars. According to their 2024-2025 annual report, Planned Parenthood alone received $832 million in taxpayer funding, primarily through federal health programs. Since the moratorium, at least twenty abortion facilities have closed, yet the current trend line is an increase in the number of abortions. Returning more than three-quarters of a billion dollars to an organization that just increased its year-over-year abortion numbers by 8%, and to other providers like it, will only further entrench the abortion industry in American society and politics and return the federal government to being the largest subsidizer of abortion providers. . . .

It is unconscionable that taxpayer funds be disbursed to an industry whose core business is terminating the life of unborn children.

July 4, 2026, marks a key moment in American history. We cannot in good conscience celebrate 250 years of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness by simultaneously federally funding the largest abortion providers in the country in order to facilitate their deadly and destructive businesses.

We urgently request that the Senate and House take up a new reconciliation package to, at minimum, extend the moratorium.

Policymakers must protect taxpayers from subsidizing abortionists. Arkansas has spent years working to do exactly that.

In 1988, voters passed Amendment 68 to the Arkansas Constitution prohibiting public funds from paying for abortion except to save the mother’s life. Following a lawsuit by an abortion clinic in Little Rock, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Amendment 68 could be enforced to whatever extent it did not conflict with federal laws. Practically speaking, this has prevented public funding of abortion in most cases, with the exception of abortions paid for with Medicaid funds in certain circumstances permitted by the federal law.

However, Amendment 68 did not prevent abortionists from receiving state or federal funds for other purposes besides performing abortion.

That’s why in 2015, the Arkansas Legislature passed Act 996 prohibiting the state from awarding grants to abortion providers and their affiliates.

That same year, Governor Asa Hutchinson directed the Department of Human Services to terminate its Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood after a series of undercover videos showed Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of organs and tissue harvested from aborted babies.

Following a lengthy lawsuit, Arkansas was able to block Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood.

In 2021, the Arkansas Legislature passed a measure keeping abortionists like Planned Parenthood out of public schools after Family Council obtained nearly 1,400 pages of documents that revealed Planned Parenthood had worked in public schools in Pulaski County for several years.

Abortionists like Planned Parenthood have tried again and again to receive taxpayer funds. Arkansas has done a good job keeping them off the public dole. Our federal government needs to do the same. That’s why Family Council is pleased to join so many pro-life leaders in urging Congress to do exactly that.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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