Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche committed to ending abortion pills by mail during a Wednesday Senate hearing to confirm him as head of the Department of Justice. Blanche was President Donald Trump’s criminal attorney and is now in line to replace Pam Bondi, who was ousted as attorney general in April. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are set to grill him over the course of a two-day hearing.Abortion came up only a handful of times during the six-hour Senate hearing, which will continue on Thursday. Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), an anti-abortion champion, used her time to criticize the Biden administration for making it easier to obtain the abortion pill mifepristone in the mail, and claimed that mailing abortion pills has been dangerous for women. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration loosened restrictions around mifepristone, including repealing the in-person dispensing requirement to ensure people could access the medication without exposing themselves to the virus.Britt brought up a recent story of a woman whose partner gave her the abortion pill without the woman’s consent or knowledge, saying access to abortion pills needed to be curtailed rather than saying the woman’s partner should be penalized for intimate partner violence.“Can you commit to me today that this administration and DOJ will prioritize taking meaningful and thoughtful action to address the dangers that occurred in the current status quo to women all over this country?” Britt asked Blanche. “Absolutely, Senator,” Blanche responded. “And it’s not only what the Department of Justice can do, but it’s what the FDA is doing right now for the first time in a decade — actually doing real studies about the safety and the appropriateness of these drugs.”The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of mifepristone for abortion care in 2000 after many peer-reviewed studies proved the drug was safe and effective. It has been used safely by millions since then, including via telehealth appointments in which a patient can speak with a physician virtually and get the medication prescribed by mail. “You know, I’ve seen video myself of what appears to be pills coming even from overseas to young women, and doesn’t matter who applies for it, anybody can get it. There’s no instructions; they just come dumped out of a little plastic bag, and it’s wrong,” Blanche said. “I very much commit our resources to stopping this.”After the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade and a dozen or so states implemented near-total abortion bans, abortion pills by mail have allowed people in banned states to still access care. Abortion rates have actually increased since the fall of Roe, in large part because of abortion pills by mail. The Trump administration and Blanche are facing mounting pressure from anti-abortion groups to settle a lawsuit against the FDA that aims to block abortion pills, including mifepristone, by mail. When asked about the lawsuit, Blanche repeatedly said the DOJ had to let the FDA continue with its safety review of mifepristone, which was announced last year despite the drug’s proven safety record. “Today Todd Blanche demonstrated that if confirmed as Attorney General, he will be content to go along with anti-abortion extremists’ plan to restrict medication abortion nationwide,” Deirdre Schifeling, the chief political and advocacy officer at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.“Senators pushed dangerous misinformation about medication abortion and fringe legal theories that would ban abortion nationwide entirely ― and Blanche blithely entertained them,” Schifeling added. “Blanche signaled repeatedly that, if confirmed, his door would be wide open to extremists who would stop at nothing to end abortion nationwide.”