Copyright truthout
At the end of August, Texas and Florida’s attorneys general asked to join GOP attorneys general from Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas in a yearslong lawsuit targeting mifepristone — breathing new life into the litigation attacking the most widely used method of abortion in the United States. Earlier this year, Donald Trump’s Department of Justice asked the courts to dismiss the suit — not based on the meritless and absurd myths about the medication (including the false claim that the drug “starves the baby to death in the womb”), but due to a lack of standing. This potentially self-serving move not only drummed up pro-abortion press for Trump, but can also be viewed as a political move allowing Trump to kick the can down the road on mifepristone to avoid angering pro-abortion voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, and possibly preempt states from overriding current and future federal policies. With Texas asking to join the suit, the argument against standing is less concrete, and Texas’s attorney general has been taking actions to buttress the assertion that the state has standing. The suit was filed in Amarillo, Texas, guaranteed to get the case heard by the only judge assigned there, Matthew Kacsmaryk, an anti-abortionist in black robes who failed to disclose his most recent zealotry prior to his confirmation by the Republican-controlled Senate. While reporters have covered the litigation efforts against mifepristone, what is often left out of the story is the fact that these attorneys general all belong to the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA). RAGA is registered as a 527 group, an IRS designation that allows it to receive unlimited contributions, which help it elect far right attorneys general and whose largest funder is Leonard Leo’s Concord Fund. The Concord Fund, also known as the Judicial Crisis Network or JCN, has given over $23 million to RAGA since it was created in 2014. Leo is known for engineering the MAGA faction of the U.S. Supreme Court that destroyed federal abortion protections with the Roberts Court’s Dobbs decision, in service of a regressive agenda that disregards most Americans’ rights and freedoms. However, his influence is not limited to the court capture. Leo recently made headlines when Trump petulantly aired his frustrations with federal judges for doing their jobs and upholding the constitutional right to due process, as well as choosing to direct his ire at Leo. This has led to speculation about whether Leo still holds the same position of influence and power he once held as a key Trump adviser, but Leo has his hands on more than one lever of power in the fight to eliminate abortion access and enact his Christian nationalist agenda. He directs a trust fund worth more than a billion dollars, which he has used to funnel money into a massively influential dark money network that fuels an agenda that has been called anti-democratic and counter to the popular will on abortion and other issues. And the far right judges on the U.S. Supreme Court rubber stamping the main pillars of Trump’s authoritarian regime have ties to Leo and also to his pipeline to judicial power via the Federalist Society, which Leo co-chairs. In addition, while Leo may be on the outs with Trump at the moment, it is proving seemingly inconsequential as Leo’s anti-abortion agenda is being propelled forward by anti-abortion attorneys general and groups with ties to the anti-abortion powerbroker, as well as lower court judges he helped get installed on the bench. RAGA Attorneys General Attack Mifepristone Access In July, 16 attorneys general wrote a letter asking Congress to preempt shield laws that protect health care providers from legal repercussions for providing abortion health care in states where abortion access is legal, regardless of where the individual seeking care resides. Shield laws also protect those traveling to seek abortion care from states with restrictive laws. This attack against medication abortion vis-a-vis shield laws, like the attacks we have seen from anti-abortion groups this year, can be traced back to Leonard Leo. Fifteen of the 16 attorneys general who signed onto the shield law letter to Congress are members of RAGA. While RAGA members’ attempt to eliminate shield laws is one of their more recent efforts in a line of attacks against access to mifepristone, they have deployed other means to keep people from receiving medication abortions over the years. For example, two of the RAGA members who signed onto July’s letter — Texas’s Ken Paxton and Louisiana’s Liz Murrill — have both sued a New York doctor for prescribing abortion medication to residents of their states — driving home the importance of shield laws. In January 2023, RAGA members also sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner demanding the FDA impose more extreme restrictions on access to mifepristone. Following this, several RAGA members sent letters to pharmacies in their states, such as Walgreens, threatening legal action if they dispensed abortion medication. Missouri’s then-Attorney General Andrew Bailey (who was recently appointed by the Trump administration to co-lead the FBI) also sued Planned Parenthood for allegedly downplaying the dangers of mifepristone — an allegation predicated on pseudoscience created by anti-abortion groups with ties to Leo. In mid-February, a new anti-abortion coalition calling itself the Life Leadership Conference (LLC) was announced. The coalition was infused with $30 million through its “Pro-Life Venture Fund,” with Leo’s network backing this highly coordinated venture. David Bereit, a longtime anti-abortion figure who is now the spokesperson for LLC, said the $30 million is meant to “incentivize” anti-abortion groups to “work together” to produce results. Following the announcement of this “conference,” anti-abortion groups have collectively organized around eliminating access to mifepristone. The anti-mifepristone discourse created by anti-abortion groups, and echoed by RAGA members like Bailey, rejects science and facts around the safety of mifepristone — which includes over 100 scientific studies proving its safety — in favor of disinformation manufactured by anti-abortion groups. Relatedly, RAGA attorneys general from Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas joined forces to revive the lawsuit challenging the FDA’s approval of mifepristone in October 2024. This is the same suit that Texas and Florida are now asking to join. The suit argues the FDA’s regulations of the medication are too lax. In other words, people residing in states with abortion bans can still have medication abortions, and the attorneys general are seeking to ban access for young people, requiring in-person prescriptions, and reducing access from 10-week gestation to seven — a timeframe when many don’t even know they are pregnant. In addition to medical misinformation, the nearly 200-page legal complaint includes the suggestion that anyone who takes mifepristone should be subject to “certain monitoring” and “enrolled in a registry.” These extreme and intrusive demands not only adhere to the abortion surveillance demands pushed in Project 2025 (a policy roadmap created by Trump insiders to undermine Americans’ rights), but also echo other efforts by RAGA attorneys general that invade people’s medical privacy. Project 2025 was put together by several groups with financial ties to Leo. This is not the first time RAGA members have attempted to disregard people’s medical privacy in service of an extreme anti-abortion agenda. In September 2024, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a RAGA member whom Leo began advising years ago, sued the Biden administration to try to block a new rule protecting the medical records of those receiving abortion health care by crossing state lines. In 2023, several RAGA attorneys general joined Texas in opposing the rule. RAGA’s Other Attacks on Abortion Access Post-Dobbs RAGA member and Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch played a vital role in overturning federal protections for abortion health care by leading the Dobbs case that reversed Roe v. Wade, and now other RAGA-affiliated attorneys general are doing what they can to eliminate what is left of abortion access. In addition to mifepristone, they have inserted themselves into various abortion access fights, which include state abortion ballot initiatives. For example, RAGA member and Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador assumed office in 2023 and has since used his role to advance Leo’s anti-abortion agenda. When the Roberts Supreme Court decided to throw out decades of precedent and overturn Roe, Idaho’s abortion ban was immediately triggered. Under Idaho’s abortion ban, doctors face the risk of felony charges for providing abortion health care — unless the patients seeking emergency care are on the verge of death. This has left doctors unable to provide patients necessary (and in some instances, life-saving) health care for fear of legal ramifications and professional ruin. The Biden administration issued guidelines under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) to protect medical providers by requiring hospitals receiving Medicare reimbursements (which is almost all hospitals) to provide emergency abortion care. This resulted in Labrador suing the federal government. The Supreme Court interjected itself into the case and then dismissed the case, further delaying the clarity needed by doctors to help patients. Earlier this year, the Trump administration revoked the EMTALA policy altogether. RAGA members have also tried to serve as a legal barrier in states where residents have tried to enshrine abortion access into their state’s constitution. Then-Florida Attorney General (now current U.S. Sen.) Ashley Moody, who was also in RAGA, challenged Florida’s Amendment 4, an abortion ballot initiative that sought to enshrine protection for abortion access into the state’s constitution. She asked the right-wing majority on the Florida’s Supreme Court, installed by Gov. Ron DeSantis with the help of Leonard Leo, to keep the amendment off the 2024 ballot. When the court failed to rule in her favor, her office challenged the abortion ballot language. Notably, Montana’s Supreme Court affirmed that the right to privacy found in the state’s constitution protected abortion access in Armstrong v. State (1999). RAGA member and Attorney General Austin Knudsen, whose law license was recommended for suspension due to attorney misconduct complaints filed in 2021 (which he challenged), has been the tip of the spear on far right attacks on Montana’s Supreme Court, which has repeatedly struck down the legislature’s attempts at passing unconstitutional abortion restrictions. Knudsen also deployed the ambiguous language tactic to try and keep the 2024 initiative enshrining abortion access in the constitution off the ballot in his state. Both Moody and Knudsen have used the power of the attorney general’s office to try and impose language that could confuse voters and depress votes for ballot measures intended to protect abortion access. Similarly, Missourians voted for Amendment 3, an abortion ballot initiative that put reproductive rights into the state’s constitution, this past November. Yet, then-Attorney General Bailey worked with the state legislature to draft SB22, which was signed into law this year, giving the Missouri attorney general unprecedented power to meddle in ongoing litigation and try to thwart efforts to restore abortion access to the state. Moments after the bill was signed into law, Bailey filed a notice of appeal to keep abortion care from resuming in Missouri. Leo’s Enduring Influence Even if the derision between Trump and Leonard Leo lasts, Leo has helped construct a pipeline to power for far right anti-abortion lawyers so deep that his influence will continue to reach into the pool of judges Trump appoints to the bench. The attorneys general in Leo’s network — who have been steeped in and professionally rewarded for their anti-abortion extremism — will also continue to bring cases before those judges and wield every tool at their disposal to further Leo’s regressive, counter-democratic agenda. An agenda that is deeply unpopular with the majority of Americans who believe they should be in charge of their own destinies and have turned out to vote to protect their reproductive rights on multiple occasions. Researchers at True North contributed to this article.
