Todd Blanche Confirmed as Attorney General, Raising Fears About Abortion Rights

Todd Blanche was confirmed as the new U.S. Attorney General on Saturday by a close vote of 50 to 49. He used to be President Donald Trump's personal criminal defense lawyer. Groups that support abortion rights say his confirmation is a serious warning sign for people who want to keep abortion legal across the country.

Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, called Blanche's confirmation 'a red alert for reproductive rights.' She said the attorney general's job is to enforce the law fairly, but she worries Blanche will twist it to help political allies instead. Gowri Buddiga, a leader at the group Free & Just, said Blanche has 'openly vowed to use that power to ban abortion.'

Buddiga also warned that Blanche plans to limit access to abortion pills sent through the mail. She said he could take away protections for patients and doctors, even in states that currently allow abortion. Her group fears that people all over the country could lose access to abortion care, no matter where they live.

A leaked audio clip caused major concern among abortion supporters. In the recording, Blanche said he wanted to make the 2022 Supreme Court decision against abortion 'permanent in every single state.' He also talked about stopping other states from using mail-order abortion drugs to get around laws in states that ban abortion.

The Department of Justice said those comments needed to be understood in full context. Officials said Blanche was mainly talking about mail-order abortion drugs, not about the federal government taking control over all state abortion laws. The Independent reached out to the Justice Department for more comment on the issue.

One law getting a lot of attention is the Comstock Act, passed in 1873. This old law makes it illegal to send certain items through the mail, including things that can cause an abortion. During his confirmation hearing, Blanche said he would review how the Justice Department currently interprets this law. In 2022, the Justice Department said the law does not automatically ban sending abortion medication by mail, because there are many legal uses for such drugs.

On the campaign trail, President Trump said that abortion rules around mail-order drugs should be decided by each state, not the federal government. He even said in 2024, 'The federal government should have nothing to do with this issue.' However, Blanche's comments and his promise to review the Comstock Act have made abortion rights groups nervous about what might happen next.

One widely used abortion drug called mifepristone has been at the center of many legal battles. In 2023, the Biden administration made it easier to get this drug without visiting a doctor in person. Some Republican-led states challenged that rule in court. The Supreme Court blocked nationwide restrictions on mifepristone in May, protecting access for now.

Despite the fights over abortion law, the number of abortions in the United States has actually gone up since the Supreme Court removed the national right to abortion in 2022. This happened because of expanded online doctor visits, policies from the Biden years, and laws in some states that protect doctors who provide abortion care. Abortion rights supporters say these facts show how important it is to keep those protections in place.

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending the national right to abortion that had existed since 1973. That earlier decision had protected abortion access for nearly 50 years. Trump helped appoint the conservative justices who made up the majority that overturned it, and he has called himself 'the most pro-life and pro-family president in American history.'