The Abortion Pill Industrial Complex Flooding America with Illegal Drugs

A Restoration News Investigation

Ed. note: A glut of reckless drugs, including foreign pills barred from the U.S. market, are spiking abortions to highs not seen in a generation. The nation faces a national crisis as women turn to dangerous at-home abortions. So why aren't pro-life conservatives—and America's most pro-life president—raising the alarm?

"Ecstatic." That is how Rosalie Markezich remembers feeling when she found out she was pregnant in October 2023.

The Louisiana resident and her then-boyfriend had only been dating for two months, and her financial situation wasn't ideal. But none of that mattered to Markezich, who worked with children at a local day care and was excited to raise a child of her own.

"I could not stop smiling," Markezich told Restoration News. "I wanted to tell people right then and there, I was so happy."

Each minute in the United States, another unborn child is killed by mifepristone.

Her boyfriend, she noted, appeared equally thrilled—for about a week. Then, for reasons still unknown to Markezich, he changed his mind. "And he decided that he had the power to change my mind as well," she said.

Earlier that year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had permanently lifted its longtime requirement that women obtain the dangerous abortion drug mifepristone from their doctors in person. That reckless change made it easy for Markezich's boyfriend to use her personal information to order abortion pills online from a California abortionist, Dr. Remy Coeytaux.

Markezich stood firm in her decision to keep her baby, but her refusal to take the pills enraged her boyfriend, leading to an altercation in his car. Terrified by his increasingly erratic behavior and criminal history, Markezich—a domestic abuse survivor—felt she had no choice but to take the pills for her own safety.

Her plan was simple: Swallow the pills and then discreetly throw them up. Her efforts were ultimately unsuccessful. Suddenly, her baby and all the joy of motherhood were gone, replaced by unimaginable grief.

Markezich is now a plaintiff in a Louisiana lawsuit challenging the Biden FDA's deregulation of mifepristone. Sadly, her story is just one of many tragedies resulting from the agency's carelessness and the new Wild West of abortion pharmaceuticals it created. Millions of women and babies across the country are now at the mercy of a gray-market abortion drug cartel that profits off putting them at risk.

Restoration News' investigation of that underground network found that most of its vendors operate with shocking disregard not only for state and federal law but also for consumers' health and safety.

President Donald Trump's administration can and should derail those operations immediately.

They Called it 'Safer Than Tylenol'

Each minute in the United States, another unborn child is killed by mifepristone.

The drug works by blocking progesterone, a pregnancy hormone essential to fetal development. It's typically followed 24–48 hours later with misoprostol, a tablet that induces contractions to expel the deceased child's remains.

The FDA greenlit this regimen when it approved Mifeprex, brand-name mifepristone, in 2000. Since then, the agency has received more than 4,200 reports of "serious adverse events" linked to the drug and acknowledges 36 maternal deaths, though the true count is likely much higher due to the frequent miscoding of chemical abortions as miscarriages.

Planned Parenthood and its allies nonetheless maintain that the drug is "safer than many other medicines like penicillin, Tylenol, and Viagra."

That comparison is "not correct," according to Dr. Monique Wubbenhorst, a board-certified OB-GYN and member of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG).

"Mifepristone is not safer than Tylenol and should not be made available over the counter," Wubbenhorst testified before members of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Jan. 14.

"Tylenol is an over-the-counter medication; it does not have a black-box warning," the doctor noted, referencing a warning for "serious and sometimes fatal infections and bleeding" on the mifepristone label. "Most problems with Tylenol are associated with accidental or deliberate overdose. Mifepristone's side effects are associated with routine prescribed use.”

In April 2025, two studies by the Restoration of America Foundation and the Ethics and Public Policy Center found that nearly 11 percent of women who ingested mifepristone from 2017–2023 experienced a serious adverse health event. Such events may include life-threatening hemorrhaging, infection, uterine rupture, ruptured ectopic pregnancy, hospitalization, a need for blood transfusions, or death.

A follow-up study by the Restoration of America Foundation released on Jan. 23, 2026 blames the abortion pill's rise for skyrocketing abortions back to a 14-year high. Now, roughly 1.1 million babies are aborted each year, even in states where abortion is illegal.

The health risks are just the tip of the iceberg. Abortion crime is on the rise.

In Louisiana, prosecutors say a 39-year-old West Baton Rouge woman coerced her underage daughter into taking an illegal "cocktail of pills" that killed her unborn child—and landed her in the emergency room. The daughter was "excited to have a baby and was planning a gender reveal party," according to Gov. Jeff Landry (R).

In Hernando County, Florida, detectives arrested 21-year-old Haley Raborn in 2023 for allegedly attempting to bribe her boyfriend into poisoning his ex-fiancée, 11 weeks pregnant, with abortion pills. Thankfully, police caught her first.

From Liana Davis v. Christopher Cooprider; Aid Access GmbH; Rebecca Gomperts (2025)

It's a sadder story in Corpus Christi, Texas, where lawsuits are flying between Liana Davis and her ex-boyfriend, 34-year-old Marine pilot Christopher Cooprider. Davis accused Cooprider of dissolving 10 abortion pills in her hot chocolate last year after she refused to "get rid of" their unborn baby girl.

Justin Anthony Banta, 39, of Joshua, Texas, faces capital murder charges for allegedly spiking his pregnant girlfriend's coffee with abortion drugs that killed her baby. Meanwhile, attorney Mason Herring, 39, of Houston, is serving out an eight-year prison sentence after lacing his wife's water with misoprostol, permanently injuring their daughter.

Few, if any, of these tragedies are privileged with attention from the legacy media. Yet a thread runs through them all: abortion pills ordered online and obtained via mail. 

The Digital Wild West

Right now, anyone can visit one of 43 online retailers and purchase Mifeprex, approved generic mifepristone, or even abortion pills not FDA-approved for sale in the United States, consequence-free.

Some of these online retailers are based in the United States, such as Choice Rising, a "virtual clinic" headquartered in California that services 48 states—including those that have restricted abortion pill access. These companies typically require proof of age and a patient consent form that limits sale to pregnancies below 13 weeks' gestation, or the end of the first trimester—beyond even the FDA's 70-day limit.

We Take Care of Us, which provides "care that is anti-racist, trauma-informed, [and] gender expansive," publishes a guide on at-home abortions up to 12 weeks and 6 days.

Some retailers work with the National Network of Abortion Funds and other leftist funders to subsidize travel and lodging from red to blue states—what's been termed "abortion tourism"—and even pay for the procedure itself.

Whole Woman's Health, based in Virginia since 2003, accepts Medicaid for residents of Maryland, Minnesota, and New Mexico. Sunny, another retailer, suggests the same:

The cost of your medication abortion and up to 1 year of birth control is completely covered. This means you will not need to pay anything out of pocket for your care with Sunny . . . . We accept Medicaid in Maryland and are working hard to be able to take Medicaid in other states soon!

The New York-based Juniper Midwifery sells many of its abortion pills through CVS Pharmacy, often billed to insurance, and recommends that Massachusetts residents request funding assistance from the state-funded Eastern Massachusetts Abortion Fund. The company's founder, Jillian Barovick, was featured by NPR and the New York Times for plotting to use New York's 2023 abortion shield law to ship pills to patients in states with abortion restrictions.

Prices and quantities vary, but $100 to $300 will generally buy one mifepristone tablet and 12 misoprostol tablets. Many sites encourage hoarding pills, such as Women on Web: "You can request abortion pills in advance and take them as soon as you discover you are pregnant."

While few companies disclose the details of their operations, it appears most were operating years before the Biden administration permitted mail-order abortion in 2021. The Toronto-based Women on Web, launched in 2005, touts itself as the first "telemedicine" abortion provider. It claims credit for more than 100,000 abortions worldwide and offers services up to 13 weeks and 6 days of gestation.

Restoration News thoroughly examined these websites' patient consultation forms. In virtually every instance, they rely on the honor system—not consultations or prescriptions. These questionnaires typically detail the risks of ingesting mifepristone and misoprostol and warn away underage women or those with pregnancies beyond 10–14 weeks (the limit varies widely).

In practice, there is nothing stopping a buyer from lying about her age or gestational period. Nor do any of the websites Restoration News investigated require or even recommend that buyers obtain an ultrasound to ensure their pregnancy is not ectopic—a potentially lethal condition for the mother.

Eligible buyers include minors, with or without parents’ permission, and even individuals who report they're "non-binary" or a "trans male." 

From Women on Web's consultation form: "Answering the questions below is optional. Your responses support our research efforts and advocacy. If and how you answer these questions will not impact your ability to receive support."

Then there are the overseas retailers, most of which illegally sell progesterone-blocking pills prohibited by the FDA without any federal oversight. This is the real Wild West of the online gray market. 

Aid Access is perhaps the largest and most infamous. The Austrian company began mailing generic mifepristone pills in all 50 states in 2018. When the FDA briefly reinstated in-person pick-up requirements in January 2021, Aid Access reportedly flouted the law.

“Aid Access continued to mail pills to patients across the United States and providers considered how much they were willing to risk to provide patient-centered care in a public health crisis,” an allied group wrote.

Aid Access claims to target 6,000 women each month in states with abortion bans.

Because the group isn’t based in the United States, it isn’t accountable to American authorities and doesn’t file nonprofit disclosures. It’s sponsored by Women on Waves, an Amsterdam-based charity that carries out illegal chemical abortions from ships positioned just outside countries where abortion is restricted, including Mexico and Morocco.

Other retailers are shadier still.

When Plans A and B Fail…

Plan C makes it clear it does not sell abortion pills, but it will teach anyone how to illegally purchase mifepristone—even "if their state bans abortion."

The site, established in 2015 by French abortion activist Francine Coeytaux—sister of abortionist Remy Coeytaux mentioned above—has become a central hub for marketing dozens of online abortion pill retailers.

That includes companies that deal in illegal generics not approved by the FDA for sale—a fact Plan C explicitly acknowledges.

"The pills we received had the same active ingredients as in the FDA-approved abortion pills available through U.S. clinics, but the manufacturers are not certified or inspected by the FDA," the abortion-by-mail directory states.

Abortion Pills Rx contradicts this, claiming "all products . . . are safe and FDA-approved." Its pills ship from the United Kingdom.

Plan C similarly promotes the services (with the same legal disclaimer) of Medside24.com, a Kazakhstani site that obtains its pills from manufacturers in China, Russia, and Vietnam—countries in which, ironically, mothers must first obtain a prescription. Medside24 markets an "abortion kit" under the "Mifewomen" label bearing Vietnamese script for $140.  

"Medical abortion pills will help avoid negative consequences!" the site's landing page blasts. A spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that abortion pill sales have doubled since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

BuyAbortionPills.net claims it's "certified by" the FDA, but the agency reports website owner Rablon was "offering violative drugs for sale to U.S. consumers" in 2019. The company doesn't appear in FDA records.

A Known Problem

The rapid expansion of this virtual back alley of abortions might be recent, but the FDA has known of its existence for years.

In March 2019, the agency issued a warning letter to Rablon Healthcare Private Limited, an Indian pharmaceuticals manufacturer based in Mumbai, for mailing illegal abortion pills to the United States.

The letter, which identifies 34 vendor websites connected to Rablon, demanded that the company "immediately cease offering violative drugs for sale to U.S. consumers" because "they are not generally recognized as safe and effective for their labeled uses."

The agency pointed out that Rablon's "Abortion Pill Pack" did not display the FDA's black-box warning about the risks of serious infections and bleeding. The pack also lacked "adequate directions for its intended use," as it contained "prescription drugs intended for a condition that is not amenable to self-diagnosis," the FDA wrote.

Restoration News has identified three Rablon-affiliated websites that remain active today: Abortion Pills Rx, Abortion Rx, and Online Abortion Pill Rx.

It's unclear how far back Rablon's sales go, but an archived snapshot shows at least one website (RealAbortion.com) selling generic mifepristone packages in the United States as early as April 2016. From the bizarrely translated description:

"Abortion pills can have a couple of bona fide persuasions on a woman's well-being. These medication pills are utilized to get the end of the incipient organism (baby) as a final result. They are an ad-libbed alternative to the surgical system. Surgical premature birth is a method for completion the pregnancy with the assistance of surgical contraptions. While, medical abortion birth with the help of pills mediating the hatching from growing, accordingly, bringing on end of it."

If that wasn't confusing enough, here's what passed for a warning label: "If they keep holding on, without any indications of diminishing. Contact a doctor earliest as possible, it could turn out to get severe."

A screenshot of the now-defunct website RealAbortion.com, dated April 2016, showing illegal sales of abortion pills by mail to the United States.

It's unclear whether Rablon remains active, though a handful of its websites appear to be, three of which are recommended by Plan C despite illegally selling unapproved abortion drugs.

Aid Access also received an FDA letter in 2019 and undeniably refused to abide by the agency's warnings. Far from being cowed, company owner Rebecca Gomperts responded with a defiant declaration that she would "not be deterred" from breaking U.S. law—a vow she has kept to this day. 

Knowingly importing a prescription drug that violates FDA requirements is a felony carrying a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Stacking mail fraud and conspiracy to distribute unapproved or misbranded drugs can bring even steeper fines and sentences, including forfeiture of profits.

Yet at this moment, radical activists are aiding and abetting this illegal drug cartel—and the FDA is allowing it to happen.

The Red State-Blue State Divide

When the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision returned the regulation of abortion to the states, the hopeful expectation of many in the pro-life movement was that a decline in abortions would follow.

It's now clear that the opposite has taken place.

This unfolding legal battle underscores a stark truth: Abortion is not, and never will be, a states' rights issue. As with slavery, America cannot endure half pro-death and half pro-life. 

Yet we've seen little movement from the Trump administration in 12 months, only empty promises. Nothing indicates federal officials will act on them.

In 2024, total abortions nationwide soared past 1.1 million, or about 200 deaths per day, marking the highest count since 2010. Mail-order abortion is driving that spike with the help of blue state "shield laws," which serve to protect abortionists from liability for violating other states' abortion restrictions.

New York Dr. Maggie Carpenter, for example, remains at large after facilitating illegal abortions in Texas and Louisiana. Both states have sought to enforce their laws against the doctor—Louisiana's governor even signed an extradition warrant—but New York's shield law prevents local law enforcement from aiding those efforts.

This is an obvious violation of both the Full Faith and Credit and Extradition Clauses of the U.S. Constitution, which require states cooperate with one another's judicial proceedings and extradition warrants. Last July, 16 state attorneys general raised this precise point in a letter asking Congress weigh in.

Currently, 19 states—all run by Democrats—employ shield laws. Virginia is expected to join them this year.

But even if such laws weren't unconstitutional, mailing abortion pills anywhere in the United States is a federal crime thanks to an 1873 law: the Comstock Act. For a century, Comstock clamped down on pornography and related obscenities until 1973—when Roe v. Wade rendered its abortion restrictions unenforceable.

With Dobbs, that inert law instantly came back into effect.

The Biden administration cleverly sidestepped enforcement in Dec. 2022 by interpreting the law to only prohibit mailing materials used for illegal abortions, which requires proving intent to break the law. That effectively preempted all enforcement of Comstock, as the health policy organization KFF notes: "Because there are legal uses of abortion drugs in every state including to save the life of the pregnant person [sic], there is no way to determine the intent of the sender."

President Trump has the authority to overturn that Biden memo, restoring Comstock's ban on mailing abortion pills overnight. The penalties for violating the law: Fines up to $500,000 for a corporation and imprisonment of up to 10 years.

This would not abolish the abortion pill, but it would effectively end its assault on pro-life states by limiting the drug's sale to in-person pickups from pharmacies in states where it's legal. (Congressional Democrats realize this, which is why they've introduced the Stop Comstock Act to prevent its enforcement.)

Will Trump Fight for Life?

This unfolding legal battle underscores a stark truth: Abortion is not, and never will be, a states' rights issue. As with slavery, America cannot endure half pro-death and half pro-life. Yet we've seen little movement from the Trump administration in 12 months, only empty promises. Nothing indicates federal officials will act on them.

Republicans are pushing for that change. On Oct. 9, 51 Republican Senators signed a public letter urging Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to restore abortion pill regulations to their pre-Biden state:

1. Suspend the approval of any new generic versions of mifepristone until further risk analysis is concluded;
2. Ensure any new generic versions are subject to ongoing risk mitigation reviews;
3. Reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for the abortion drug changed by Biden;
4. Suspend all distribution of the abortion drug as an “imminent hazard” under existing law; and
5. Withdraw FDA guidance permitting pharmacy distribution of mifepristone.

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley (R) followed up in December with a letter blasting FDA Commissioner Marty Makary for "stonewalling" serious investigations into the drug's safety record.

Louisiana is suing the FDA for authorizing mifepristone access through the mail under Biden, pointing out that it allows abortionists to openly defy Louisiana state law.

Texas and Florida filed their own lawsuits in December to pull mifepristone off-market, citing its health risks to women and the Comstock Act's total ban on "mail-order abortion drugs":

In addition to being untethered to any medical research evaluating the safety and effectiveness of mail-order abortion drugs, these changes openly defy federal law criminalizing the use of the mails to convey “[e]very article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion.”

It's clear that America needs strong leadership to protect the next generation. President Trump can be that hero, but only if he commits to defeating Big Abortion.

All the pieces are in place. Trump is ferociously battling illegal drug cartels flooding our country with lethal junk. Fentanyl kills about 48,000 Americans each year (down from a high of over 100,000 in the Biden years); mifepristone kills over 693,000, all of them innocent victims in the womb.

Last May, Trump said he wants to be remembered as the "fertilization president" to fight falling birthrates. That's a God-honoring ambition. But in vitro fertilization (IVF) is expensive, controversial, theologically problematic, and yields fewer than 100,000 births annually. Why not focus on the 1.1 million children being killed by all forms of abortion each year before subsidizing IVF?

The power to save future generations of American families is within the president's grasp. History will judge what he does with it—as will the Almighty.

MORE FROM THE FRONTLINES:

Exclusive: Abortion is Skyrocketing in America Due to the Abortion Pill

Investigation: Inside the Abortion Pill War Rocking America

Capitol Hill: In Abortion Pill Hearing, Democrats Dismiss Abuse and Basic Biology to Protect Abortion On-Demand

Commentary: Want to Crack Down on Drug Trafficking? Target the Abortion Drug Cartel

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Restoration News, a project of Restoration of America, is your trusted investigative news source for the America First movement. As a rapidly growing conservative news site, we focus on delivering accurate and insightful exposés on the culture war, fight for life, mass immigration, leftist lies, and other pressing issues affecting everyday Americans. Our uncompromising commitment to a hard-hitting, fact-based, America First, and faithful perspective ensures that you receive news that aligns with your values. 

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