As the Senate gears up to vote on confirming acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, pro-life groups are hoping that the Trump appointee will do everything necessary to put a stop to mail-order abortions across the country. A leaked phone call shows that he seems to have his pro-life priorities straight.
The July 30 phone conference, which was organized by the White House Faith Office, reportedly hosted Blanche and representatives of thousands of pro-life groups from across the country. In the call, Blanche pledged to support pro-life causes and make the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision “permanent in every single state.”
“We’re working to get solutions so that the Dobbs decision becomes permanent in every single state,” Blanche said. “That means that if states have said, ‘We are going to protect the unborn, and we’re going to protect every life from the moment of conception,’ we’re putting practices and policies in place so that other states and other organizations can’t attack that, and they can’t do things like mail-order drugs.”
According to the news outlet Stateline, the original recording of the call was posted by Intercessors for America on Tuesday, but was later removed. Clips of the call are still available on platforms like X and Instagram.
The Department of Justice told Politico that Blanche was only referring to the mail-order abortion drug mifepristone, not abortion access in general.
The disclosure of the call comes as Blanche’s appointment continues to divide the Republican Party. On Tuesday, staunch pro-life Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) publicly confirmed that they would vote to confirm Blanche after he pledged to nuke the controversial anti-weaponization fund.
Following the revelation of the private call, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said in a post on X that she would vote against confirming Blanche.
“While I believe Mr. Blanche is a capable lawyer, the Department of Justice has become increasingly political,” Collins said, proceeding to cite the anti-weaponization fund and the leaked call as a reason she opposes his confirmation.
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If confirmed as the country’s attorney general, Blanche can take up the pro-life cause and end mail-order abortion pills, which have drastically increased abortion access even in states that have a complete or near-total ban. The Trump appointee can even choose to enforce a dormant law known as the Comstock Act, which would immediately stop the shipment of abortifacients such as mifepristone.
While Blanche may be showing his cards in private, publicly he has taken a different approach.
In his hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee, Blanche said under oath that, “We have the most pro-life president in history. … The [Food and Drug Administration] has a process that we’re letting them go forward in. And this is again in our briefings. It takes a year. They’ve committed to do it in significantly less time than a year.”
His testimony before the Senate committee is a bit at odds with what President Donald Trump’s known opinions on pro-life issues are. The president, although he followed through on his first-term promise to overturn Roe v. Wade, often shies away from taking up the pro-life cause wholeheartedly, even committing in 2024 to ensure access to the abortion pill.
Other than the fact that Trump has distanced himself from the pro-life movement, Blanche’s testimony is also factually misleading.
While the FDA may have told Blanche or Trump that they’ve “committed to [reviewing the safety of mifepristone] in significantly less time than a year,” it has already been over a year since the administration began the process. The FDA began reviewing the abortion pill in June 2025, more than 14 months ago, the Washington Examiner reported.
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“President Trump’s administration in its entirety will protect the life of the unborn and work with states and obviously you [Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO)] to make sure that we do that in the best way,” Blanche said in his hearing. “I want to get to a solution as well.”
Hopefully, Blanche can be transparent about his intentions to end abortions nationwide — if those are his actual intentions. If he has to conform his beliefs to Trump’s opinion about abortion, the pro-life movement may never see another win from this administration.