Trump's White House has told the Justice Department to move slowly on abortion until after the election, according to new reporting.

The Washington Sun reports that the White House has told the Justice Department to move slowly on anything to do with abortion before the November midterms.

"No one wants us taking any real action before the midterms"

According to a senior administration official who spoke to the Sun, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles led a series of discussions in which top White House staff delivered the message directly to Attorney General Todd Blanche. Wiles suggested that an aggressive approach on abortion would bring unwanted attention — something officials worried could turn off voters.

"No one wants us taking any real action before the midterms," the official said.

The White House denies it: "This is completely false. These conversations never occurred between White House officials and DOJ officials." A Justice Department spokesperson didn't answer questions about the meetings and instead called Trump "the most pro-life president in history."

What anti-abortion groups say they've been promised

The people who actually want the restrictions tell the same story — and they say the plan is to act once the votes are counted.

According to the Sun, administration officials have told anti-abortion leaders that any action on abortion will come after the midterms.

• "Once the midterms are over and it's truly lame-duck time, we've heard the gloves will be off," one conservative in touch with the administration said.
• Tom McClusky of CatholicVote said he's heard "the same thing from every agency I talk to and from members of Congress. … It's always that nothing's going to happen until November."
• Asked when the Justice Department would act, Students for Life's Kristi Hamrick said: "Everything but the election is pushed until after the elections."

What's waiting on the other side of Election Day

Two things are on hold, according to the Sun's reporting.

Abortion pills. Federal courts are hearing lawsuits that seek to restrict mifepristone, an abortion pill. The Justice Department has been asking judges to pause those cases while the Food and Drug Administration reviews the drug. Anti-abortion groups want the department to drop its procedural defense of the FDA's rules and let the courts rule on the merits faster. The senior official said the White House has told Blanche it won't support that. A change in strategy, officials made clear, would mean bad headlines right before the vote.

The Comstock Act. This is an 1873 law that bans mailing "every article or thing designed, adapted or intended for producing abortion." Enforced the way anti-abortion groups want, it could cut off abortion pills by mail nationwide — even in states where abortion is legal. A source told the Sun that Justice Department officials have told anti-abortion leaders that any action on Comstock would come after the election, and that the department is "actively working on it."

We've already reported on Blanche's plans for the Comstock Act. At his confirmation hearing in July, Blanche said he opposed abortion pills by mail and committed to enforcing the law. And on a private call with faith leaders, he said he wanted the Dobbs decision made permanent "in every single state".

Since the summer, the Sun notes, he has said nothing about abortion in public.

The promise this would break

In 2024, Trump promised he would "not block" access to abortion pills. Any move to restrict them would break that promise, the Sun points out.

The reporting also describes a break from how the Justice Department is supposed to work. After Watergate, the department adopted a "no contacts" policy to keep White House staff out of sensitive legal matters. Trump loosened it at the start of this term. A White House directive to work electoral timing into the department's lawsuits, the Sun notes, "would historically have been seen as highly unusual, at best."

Why this matters for your vote

The people pushing for a national crackdown on abortion pills say they've been told to wait until November. If that's true, voters are being asked to elect a Congress without being told what the administration plans to do the day after.

What the reporting shows

According to The Washington Sun, Trump's chief of staff told the attorney general to hold off on abortion actions until after the midterms because they could cost Republicans votes — and anti-abortion leaders say they've been told action on abortion pills and the Comstock Act is coming after the election. The White House denies the conversations happened; the groups that want the restrictions describe the same timeline in their own words.

Source

• White House Officials Told the DOJ to Delay Action on Abortion Ahead of the Midterms — The Washington Sun