Roe v. Wade may be history, but abortions are up nationwide. While many states have moved to restrict in-person abortions, chemically induced abortions via pills have taken the place of abortion facilities. Mifepristone, the drug most commonly used to abort unborn babies, is available by mail nationwide — even in states that have abortion restrictions. According to a recent report by the Guttmacher Institute, over 91,000 abortions were obtained by mail last year in pro-life states.

Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) identified a key concern Friday with mail-order abortion pills: “Who’s asking for the prescription? John Smith. John Smith. Is this even a female? So the people requesting a mail-order prescription, the whole idea of mail order is it opens the door to this sort of thing.”

Cassidy, a physician who chairs the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, spoke Friday to pastors in Baton Rouge to outline potential solutions to the rising abortion rate in Louisiana driven by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s chemical abortion policy. The current policy under Trump’s FDA allows the distribution of abortion pills by mail without an in-person doctor visit prior to the prescription being sent.

At the breakfast hosted by Family Research Council, FRC President Tony Perkins outlined the challenge faced by pro-lifers: “Here’s the bottom line: it’s federal policy that is the driver of the increase of abortion. It’s a policy of the Biden administration that was put in place, but the Trump administration is protecting it. The president could change this overnight, but he refuses to do so.”

Cassidy discussed with the gathered pastors and faith leaders ways the pro-life movement could act in the face of the avalanche of mail-order abortion. He underscored the need to require in-person visits prior to drug dispensation.

“Because by reinstating the in-person visit, the physician would be able to see if the person is coerced. And secondly, to make sure that she is not too far along in her pregnancy. That is a way that we can win this argument,” Cassidy said.

Cassidy believes that the coercion aspect is a bipartisan issue that can help protect women. He told the pastors, “When we begin to do ultrasounds of a child in the womb before the abortion, we define the question as to whether or not this is a child. And at that point, abortions begin to decline. We need to define once more. And that’s why I keep going back to requiring the in-person visit — to make sure that she is not coerced. And if you do that, mail-order abortions will go away.”

Cassidy is also advancing legislative remedies to mail-order abortions. “I have sponsored the bill SAVE Moms and Babies Act, which would reinstate the REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy) and the Forced Abortion Prevention and Accountability Act [to impose] criminal penalties for giving a drug without consent.”

Efforts are also afoot in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguiñaga, who was also at the meeting, said, “What we did last fall on behalf of the state, and we have a co-plaintiff — a woman from the New Orleans area who was coerced by a boyfriend to abort a baby she wanted to keep. We sued alongside her — sued FDA and have asked the courts to basically vacate the Biden administration’s removal of that in-person dispensing requirement. The practical consequence of that would be to restore the requirement.”

Cassidy noted that this is an uphill battle, but one in which he thinks victory can be achieved. “[T]his has become so ideologically driven that I hate to say it, the AMA and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists are not going to be on our side,” Cassidy lamented. “This is about humanizing an issue,” Cassidy went on. “That’s what we have to do. We have to humanize the issue that these are women being coerced. Maybe not all, but too many. And if we do that, we win.”

Perkins praised Cassidy’s handling of the abortion pill issue. “Senator Cassidy has been leading on this issue in Washington, D.C. … even as late as this week when Secretary Kennedy came before his committee, he asked him about this once again. And so I appreciate Senator Cassidy’s leadership on this. He gets it. He understands it, and he’s not afraid to speak out about it.”