These days, it’s no picnic to sit in front of the Senate as a close ally of Donald Trump’s. Todd Blanche, who took a turn in the hot seat last week to win the job as Pam Bondi’s successor, spent hours sweating it out as leaders on both sides grilled him on his personal work for the president and his record during the two-month head start he had as acting attorney general. And while Blanche tried to repel the attacks on everything from the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein files to the controversial (and now deep-sixed) anti-weaponization fund, there was one issue that grabbed a surprising amount of attention: chemical abortion.

While the pro-life movement’s disillusionment with Trump is no secret, it was refreshing to see a parade of senators demand answers on why the president hasn’t lived up to his first-term legacy on an agenda that many consider the most critical of our time. As disappointing as it’s been to see the president abandon the fight on things like defunding Planned Parenthood, Trump’s most perplexing retreat has also been the most deadly — his refusal to protect women from the dangerous drug mifepristone and his shocking indifference to the army of abortionists flooding pro-life states with that abortion drug against federal and state laws.

For his part, Blanche seemed to understand Republicans’ irritation. As many of them pointed out, the president didn’t hesitate to tackle both problems in his first term, leaving Americans to wonder: what’s changed? The nominee didn’t really have an answer to that, instead repeating that Trump is “the most pro-life president in history” and pointing to the FDA’s long-delayed study on the dangers of mifepristone as proof that the administration was doing something about it.

On multiple occasions, the acting attorney general pledged to act, insisting that he “shares” the concerns of conservatives like Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who pointed out that GOP states are now in the bizarre position of fighting a Republican administration in court over a radical Biden-era policy. Blanche tried to dodge, replying that he couldn’t discuss “litigation strategies” — only to concede later on in the hearing that the current rules allowing women to get an abortion drug that has an 11% complication rate without ever seeing a doctor are “wrong.”

Another thing senators heard in defense of the current Trump posture was Blanche’s bogus claim that “we have to have studies that we can defend in court.” In other words, we need the FDA to finish its research on the harms of mifepristone before we roll back Biden’s policy or start enforcing the Comstock law that says you can’t ship abortion drugs over state lines. But the administration didn’t need a new study to reinstate the safety protocol in Trump’s first term. And they certainly don’t need studies to enforce the laws that are already on the books — they just need the political will, which, unfortunately, seems sorely lacking this time around.

If the president believes, as he argued time and time again, that abortion is a “states’ rights issue,” then he needs to let states enforce their own laws. And right now, they can’t, because without the federal government in the fight, there’s no stopping blue-state abortionists from swamping their borders with mail-order mifepristone. The result of that, Trump needs to realize, is abortion in all 50 states — the complete opposite of what the overturn of Roe, his pro-life legacy, was meant to accomplish.

And frankly, as Perkins pointed out in a compelling interview with Princeton Professor Robby George on “Washington Watch” Thursday, the Supreme Court didn’t make this a “states’ rights issue” to begin with. They made it a legislative issue for the federal government and states. But even if it were that narrow interpretation, “the states are now being prohibited from doing what people have said that they had the right to do,” Perkins lamented, “because the states are not able to protect the unborn and the women in their states because of this drug coming in through the mail without any medical oversight. And they can’t stop it.”

Exactly, George agreed. “The people who are claiming that this is really a matter for the states are not permitting the states to actually take jurisdiction of the matter.” Because the mailbox and the mail are the main deliverers of abortion now, “the federal government has become a facilitator of this — an accomplice,” Perkins argued. “If this is supposed to be a pro-life administration, then there’s absolutely no excuse for the Justice Department and the Trump administration’s position on this,” George reiterated.

But righting this wrong, as pro-lifers have been stressing for more than two years, isn’t a heavy lift — especially in a country that elected a Republican House, Senate, and president. There’s a two-step solution, FRC’s president points out. “One is the in-person requirement [for the abortion drug] being reestablished … but then simply enforcing the law as it pertains to Comstock,” the 153-year-old law that criminalizes the mailing of dangerous drugs like these.

As Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) underscored on “Washington Watch” last month, “I think the world of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. I’m glad the president nominated him. But this is a critical issue. … [And] the Supreme Court has said this is a valid law and an enforceable law. And so therefore, I am looking to hold the Department of Justice accountable. In Georgia,” he reminded people, “we believe in preserving life. … And for folks, even from here in Washington, D.C. [to mail these pills without] a doctor’s prescription … it’s wrong. It’s deadly. It causes the murder of an unborn child” and serious side effects for women, “and it must be stopped.”

If the Trump administration will go to the trouble — and invite the controversy — of the extreme measures the military has taken against the drug cartels and narco-terrorists, then it should certainly, Perkins argues, go to those same lengths to keep deadly abortion pills out of our states. “Maybe if these abortion [drugs] were coming by boat, the administration would change its tactics,” he quipped. “But it’s time to change this. It’s time to respect the rights of the states. And it’s time to end death by mail.”

As for Blanche, he’s in an “untenable position,” FRC’s Quena González told The Washington Stand. “On the one hand he can’t commit to go against the administration’s policy, which until now has been silence and inaction in the face of the Biden DOJ’s horrific ruling. On the other,” he continued, “I think he actually does appreciate the problem of not enforcing existing law. I take him at his word that he will closely examine the question.”

At the end of the day, González emphasized, “The problem is not the DOJ, it’s the White House. Trump could have resolved this last year. What we’re seeing is the result of a lack of political priority being given to pro-life protections by the president, not an inability to act. Hopefully, the erstwhile most pro-life president in history will rouse himself once more to protect the defenseless unborn from the Left’s fanatical devotion to death.”

Until then, Professor George urged, people need to wake up, “and they need to bring pressure to bear on this administration to overthrow the Biden policy — which is not what they voted for — and to get the administration to actually live up to its stated commitments.” It takes leadership to win on these issues, he said. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) agreed, telling Perkins, “If President Trump is the most pro-life president, this ought to be a pretty easy call.”