Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., wants to ban abortion pills. His own party would rather talk about other things.

One of the most significant bills to restrict abortion access in years was introduced Wednesday, when Hawley presented legislation that seeks to withdraw Food and Drug Administration approval for mifepristone, one of the two pills used in medication abortions.

The most enthusiastic show of support appeared to be two words uttered by a Republican senator locked in the fight of his political life. “All in,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, wrote on X on Thursday. 

Otherwise, Republican leaders from the White House to Capitol Hill have been conspicuously quiet. No endorsements from leadership. No floor votes scheduled. No momentum.

And that dynamic reflects a broader reality: Two and 1/2 years after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, Republicans are increasingly caught between a restless anti-abortion base and a president who some activists allege has effectively abandoned the issue.

“Republican leadership from the White House on down should listen to their voters and work to take this bill on,” Noah Brandt, vice president of communications at the anti-abortion group Live Action, told MS NOW on Thursday. The continued availability of abortion pills, Brandt said, “has the opportunity to really dampen enthusiasm among the base” ahead of the midterms, “and pro-life groups are an extremely important part of the Republican base.” 

At Hawley’s news conference on Wednesday, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said abortion opponents “have looked to the administration to at least reign in … rules surrounding the distribution of this drug,” but have “decided this is a dead end.” She is among a group of abortion opponents who previously told Politico that they would consider withholding tens of millions of dollars in planned midterm elections spending if Republicans did not get tougher on restricting abortion access. 

“Trump is not passionate about the abortion issue one way or another,” said Mary Ziegler, a leading abortion law scholar and professor at the University of California, Davis. “I think he’s looking at this and looking at internal polling and thinking there’s really nothing in it for him to focus on these issues.” 

New polling from Pew Research Center released Thursday suggests why. A majority of Americans, 55%, support medication abortion being legal in their state, with just over a quarter saying they think it should be illegal, and nearly one-fifth unsure. Republicans are notably divided: 43% say the pills should be illegal, while 35% believe they should be legal and 21% are unsure.

That Hawley introduced the bill does not come as a surprise: An anti-abortion stalwart, he sponsored similar — though less drastic — legislation last year. And abortion opponents have been calling for President Donald Trump’s FDA to reinstate in-person dispensing requirements for the pills, reversing a 2023 rule change that has allowed them to be prescribed virtually and mailed to patients without an in-person visit.

Since the Supreme Court overruled Roe, the overall number of abortions nationwide has surged, thanks in part to the availability of abortion pills through telehealth. Medication abortions now account for more than 60% of all abortions nationwide, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights. More than 100 scientific studies show they are safe and effective, including when prescribed virtually and mailed to patients. 

The FDA first approved the use of mifepristone for abortions more than 25 years ago. A study published by JAMA in January that reviewed the agency’s history regulating the drug drawing from documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request found that the FDA’s oversight of mifepristone “has been shaped by scientific evidence and a cautious regulatory approach led by scientists at the agency.”

While campaigning in 2024, the president routinely boasted about appointing the conservative supermajority to the Supreme Court that overruled Roe. Since resuming office, his administration has rolled back some Biden-era policies, including one that allowed the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide limited abortion counseling and services to veterans and their beneficiaries, as MS NOW first reported in December; the Pentagon also ended a policy that reimbursed servicemembers who needed to travel out of state to access abortions.

But Trump and his allies have not heeded the most significant demands of anti-abortion activists, including directing the Justice Department to enforce the Comstock Act, a 19th-century anti-obscenity law that bans the mailing of — among other things — anything “intended for producing abortion.” Project 2025 called for the law to be used to prosecute providers who mail abortion pills to patients. 

In the fall, the FDA quietly approved a second generic version of mifepristone just prior to the shutdown. And in December, Bloomberg reported that FDA Commissioner Marty Makary — who told MS NOW in July that he had “no plans” to change access to the pills — was slow-walking a promised “safety review” of mifepristone until after the midterms. Both moves sparked outrage among anti-abortion lobbying groups and activists.

Emily Hilliard, press secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services, told MS NOW that the agency does not comment on pending legislation. Regarding the FDA’s safety review of mifepristone, she said the agency “continues to work on the collection of the robust and timely data that is necessary for a well-controlled study with adequate statistical power.”

Trump did not mention abortion at all during his State of the Union address last month, and caused an uproar in January when he urged Republicans to be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funds from being used for abortions, including in the cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk. Lawyers for the administration have also asked federal courts to pause or dismiss two separate cases — brought by a handful of red states seeking to restrict access to the pills — arguing that the states lack standing to bring the suits and noting that the FDA review is ongoing.  

All of this, Ziegler told MS NOW, makes Hawley’s bill “awkward for other Republicans who don’t want to make Trump angry in the middle of an election, don’t want to make base voters angry … and don’t want to lose swing voters.”

So far, Republicans are largely avoiding taking a position on Hawley’s legislation, which would also make distributing the pills for the purpose of abortion a federal crime — they are also used in miscarriage management — and would allow women to sue for damages if they were harmed. Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., is sponsoring the bill in the House. 

Spokespeople for the White House, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., did not respond to repeated requests for comment from MS NOW about whether they plan to support the legislation. 

When asked, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, told MS NOW on Thursday he opposes the current scope of availability of abortion pills — before adding, “I haven’t seen this particular legislation.” 

Spokespeople for Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska — the only two Republican senators who did not sign a letter their colleagues sent to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Makary in October calling for an immediate crackdown on mifepristone — also did not respond to questions about whether they would support the bill.

Democrats, meanwhile, argue Hawley’s effort shows that the Republicans are still trying to restrict abortion access — and that their position is a losing one. 

In a statement to MS NOW, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called Hawley’s bill “inconceivably cruel and radical.” 

Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, alleged Hawley’s “ultimate goal” is “ending access to abortion for everyone, everywhere.” 

“This is yet another effort from abortion opponents to restrict access to care and spread even more misinformation about a safe and effective medication that millions of people have used,” she said. 

Mychael Schnell contributed reporting.

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