The US Catholic bishops are getting ready a nationwide call to prayer and action, with an official launch date of August 18, to mobilise Catholics to address the rising abortion rate and the increased availability of an abortion-inducing drug.
“Every abortion involves the death of a child and harm to the mother. Now with easier access to abortion pills, the abortion rate is tragically climbing, along with increased health risks,” Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Toledo, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said in joint remarks.
Abortion rates in the US bottomed out in 2017, when they were estimated to be just over 862,000, and began increasing again in the first Trump administration, which also approved the first generic for mifepristone, commonly called “the abortion pill,” in 2019. The pill is commonly used in combination with misoprostol for early abortion, although the same combination is also used in some miscarriage care protocols that were more recently recommended for consideration by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
More than six of 10 abortions in the US are performed through a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, according to recent estimates.
A federal policy permitting distribution by mail of mifepristone was first issued by the Biden administration following the Dobbs decision. The policy has thus far been left in place by the second Trump administration, which approved a second generic for mifepristone in 2025 to the shock of pro-life groups.
The Department of Justice, under the current Trump administration, has also sought to block state challenges to the policy pending a promised safety review by the Food and Drug Administration. But the status and timeline of the FDA review are unclear.
Archbishop Coakley and Bishop Thomas stated that the FDA “has enabled a nationwide mail-order abortion industry by allowing abortion pills to be prescribed in telehealth appointments and sold both at neighborhood pharmacies and online, circumventing state laws that protect life in the womb.”
The bishops said that from the official start of the campaign through the end of October, when the Church in the US marks Respect Life Month, “the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities is inviting Catholics to join a focused effort of prayer and action to stop the spread of abortion pills.”
