White House hosting anti-abortion activists amid Trump backlash

By Adam Cancryn, CNN

(CNN) — Senior Trump aides will host anti-abortion activists for a meeting at the White House on Friday, in an effort to temper growing intra-party criticism over the administration’s priorities, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.

Anti-abortion activists have expressed deep frustration over a stalled effort to limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone, with Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser explicitly blaming President Donald Trump earlier this week: “Trump is the problem.”

Several other anti-abortion activists have also taken aim at Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, who they believe is slow-walking efforts to crack down on regulations permitting wide distribution of mifepristone.

Dannenfelser is expected to attend the Friday meeting at the White House, which was first reported by Semafor.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, women have been able to obtain mifepristone — one of the two drugs in the medication abortion regimen — through telehealth appointments. The Biden administration finalized rules that ended the requirement that the pills be obtained through an in-person doctor’s visit in 2023, a year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe.

The Supreme Court temporarily restored telehealth and mail access to the abortion pill mifepristone earlier this week, after a lower court reinstated the in-person requirement. The “administrative stay” is far from a final decision but rather maintains the status quo for a few days while the court reviews emergency appeals filed Saturday by the drug’s manufacturer and the maker of a generic version.

Trump’s Department of Justice did not take a position on the mifepristone issue before the Supreme Court.

In a statement, White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster called Trump the “most pro-life and pro-family president in American history,” and said the administration “continues to engage with stakeholders and activists in this important community to advance the President’s pro-life agenda.”

The meeting is part of a wider-ranging effort to shore up Trump’s and Republicans’ standing with various parts of the GOP coalition ahead of the midterm elections.

Trump last month met with a group of “Make America Healthy Again” influencers who had criticized the White House over its decision to side with agricultural corporations in encouraging more production of a controversial weedkiller.

John Fritze contributed to this report.

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