MEMO: 25 Years of Mifepristone: Project 2025 & Trump’s National Abortion Test
Interested Parties Memo
From: Veronica Ingham, Free & Just Senior Campaigns Director
Re: 25 Years of Mifepristone: Project 2025 & Trump’s National Abortion Test
Date: September 24, 2025
Background
September 28 marks 25 years since the FDA approved mifepristone, a safe, effective medication that has reshaped abortion care in the U.S. Despite its proven track record, Project 2025 — the right’s governing blueprint for a second Trump term — lays out a roadmap to eliminate access. Today, the Trump administration is testing a national abortion ban through attacks on mifepristone.
Current Threats
Project 2025 Playbook: A covert national abortion ban test – Project 2025 calls for rolling back medication abortion by pressuring federal agencies to reverse FDA approval and by weaponizing the Comstock Act as a backdoor national ban.
Political Pressure: Republican attorneys general and members of Congress continue to demand new investigations into mifepristone, ignoring decades of data on its safety.
Misuse of Comstock Act: Conservative lawmakers want to revive the 1873 Comstock law to block mailing abortion pills and even medical equipment — an approach echoed in Project 2025.
Legal Challenges: Anti-abortion organizations are advancing lawsuits aimed at curtailing or eliminating access to mifepristone nationwide.
State-Level Bans: States like Texas are passing laws banning mailed pills and deputizing private citizens to sue anyone who helps Texans obtain them. States that protect abortion rights are now relying on “shield laws” to protect patients and providers.
Federal Review: At the urging of anti-abortion politicians and junk science, the FDA has agreed to revisit its approval of mifepristone — a drug it has deemed safe for nearly 25 years.
The Reality
Safe and Effective: Medication abortion accounted for nearly two-thirds of all U.S. abortions in 2023.
Public Opinion: More than six in ten Americans support keeping medication abortion available. Even many Trump voters oppose new restrictions.
Political Risk: Imposing Project 2025’s abortion agenda risks significant political backlash, particularly in battleground states.
Bottom Line
The 25th anniversary of mifepristone is a milestone in reproductive health and also a searing reminder of what’s at stake: Project 2025 would dismantle access to one of the safest, most widely used medications in the country. Trump’s attacks on mifepristone are a national abortion test. Will women and families retain the ability to make private medical decisions — or see those decisions dictated by politics?