Leaders seek to block interstate Rx abortion pills

WASHINGTON––U.S. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, both Southern Baptists, joined others at a press conference Jan. 14 urging federal authorities to block interstate abortion pill prescriptions.

Also on hand was Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, who announced Jan. 13 her indictment of California physician Remy Coeytaux on the charge of “criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs,” alleging he prescribed the abortion cocktail of mifepristone and misoprostol for a Louisiana woman. 

Louisiana law punishes the crime by financial penalties and one-to-50 years of hard labor, Murrill reported.

Joining the three were U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and several pro-life congressional and state leaders in their appeal to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Justice to outlaw the interstate shipment of abortion-inducing drugs.

The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission applauded efforts to end interstate prescriptions for abortion-inducing drugs, especially commending Murrill for issuing an indictment.

“The state of Louisiana is to be commended for its aggressive legal efforts to protect preborn children and their moms from predatory purveyors of medical abortion,” Miles Mullin, ERLC executive vice president and chief of staff, told Baptist Press.

“Many pro-life states have passed similar laws since [Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization], so we can expect to see more of these efforts by their attorneys general in the months and years ahead,” Mullin said.

Still, federal action is the best route to saving unborn lives, Mullin said.

“In reality, there is no way that California, or other pro-choice states, will honor any sort of extradition order for those supplying abortion drugs. Neither will abortion doctors in those states stop mailing abortion drugs across state lines to pro-life states, unless the federal government takes action,” Mullin said.

“Once again, this leads to the conclusion that there is still much work to be done at the federal level to save preborn lives, starting with enforcement of the Comstock Act. Please join us in praying that our leaders in Washington, D.C., would have the fortitude to take that important step. Now is the time for action,” Mullin continued.

Lankford, a Southern Baptist, represents Oklahoma, one of 14 states banning medical abortions as recently as June 2024, according to USAFacts.

“What’s happening right now on the national level is abortion pills are being mailed into my state to go around state law to facilitate the death of children in my state,” Lankford said at the press conference.

“There is always a death that’s involved in this drug, but it is also incredibly dangerous for the mom as well. So, we’re speaking out on this, challenging the FDA and [Health and Human Services] to live up to our values,” Lankford continued.

Louisiana indictment

Murrill charged Coeytaux with violating Louisiana’s prohibition on abortion “by means of an abortion-inducing drug,” and a state law prohibiting aiding and abetting in the procurement or distribution of such drugs, according to Murrill’s press release.

“This is not health care; it’s drug dealing,” Murrill said, accusing doctors of “flagrantly and intentionally placing women in danger. We’ve seen the proof of that, with women showing up in emergency rooms after taking these pills and being coerced into abortions.”

In October 2023, Coeytaux, who resides in Healdsburg, Calif., sent a pregnant woman in Louisiana the abortion pills for a fee of $150, Murrill said in a bill of information. The pregnant woman ingested the medication and ended her pregnancy.

Louisiana sent an order to California for Coeytaux to be extradited to Louisiana for trial, but California Gov. Gavin Newsom has refused to comply, Politico reported.

It is Louisiana’s second indictment of an out-of-state doctor on such charges, following the January 2025 indictment of New York physician Margaret Carpenter, her company Nightingale Medical PC, and a third individual. New York also refused to extradite Carpenter for trial.

In her battle against medication abortions, Murrill also testified Jan. 14 before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee about the dangers and interstate proliferation of the medication.

“Abortions have tragically increased in Louisiana since, despite its pro-life laws,” Murrill testified. “The pro-abortion Society of Family Planning reports that, from April to June 2024 alone, mail-order abortion drugs—sent illegally into Louisiana from doctors and activists in other states—accounted for an average of 617 abortions in Louisiana per month.”

The number exceeded 800 such abortions in December 2024, she said, “and continues to trend upward, eclipsing 900 abortions per month in Louisiana in 2025.”

Murrill is a co-plaintiff in a lawsuit to block interstate abortion pill prescriptions, citing the dangers inherent in the pills being prescribed without in-person exams by physicians. 

Press conference

At the Washington press conference, Perkins and others lamented and criticized actions under the Biden administration intended to protect abortion access through the availability of medication abortions. The effort has bicameral Republican support in concert with that of state leaders, Perkins said.

Speakers said the abortion pills are at least 20 times more dangerous than Tylenol.

“The reason we’re holding this press conference,” Perkins said, “is really to drive home the issue of the states. This is coming from conservative states, states that should be aligned with this administration. And if there are those that don’t care about the life issue, they should care about the politics of this.

“This is going to be a political problem for those who have sold out the pro-life movement,” Perkins said.