Since the extradition of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — the alleged kingpin of a massive drug-trafficking enterprise — reports indicate that the drug-running vessels in the Caribbean are few and far between. Maduro’s arrest, combined with the U.S. military’s interception and elimination of over 100 suspected drug runners in 35 strikes, appears to have disrupted the illegal supply chain.
While the media has disputed the numbers, President Trump has argued that the volume of narcotics carried on each destroyed vessel represents as many as 23,000 lives saved. For families who have buried sons and daughters lost to fentanyl, heroin, and other illicit drugs, whether that number is 23 or 23,000 is beside the point. What matters is this: decisive action was taken against a deadly supply chain.
As I’ve said before, addressing the supply side of the drug crisis is only half the equation. Demand must be confronted as well. But that is a discussion for another day.
What deserves attention now is the extraordinary willingness of this administration to use every lawful tool available to stop illegal drugs from crossing our borders and to hold traffickers accountable — even when doing so required unconventional or politically risky measures.
Earlier this week, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and I hosted a press conference on Capitol Hill alongside several other members of Congress and state attorneys general to draw attention to another form of deadly illegal drug trafficking — one that receives far less scrutiny. These attorneys general are asking the Trump administration for help in stopping the flow of an illegal drug into their states and in holding those responsible accountable, just as Maduro was held accountable. Instead of assistance, they are encountering federal resistance. In this case, the federal government is not stopping the trafficking; it is enabling it.
The drug in question is mifepristone — the abortion pill. It is illegal in 14 states, yet according to the best available data, roughly 8,000 pills are being mailed into those states every month. Chemical abortions now account for an estimated 60 to 70% of all abortions in the United States. After Roe v. Wade was overturned, abortions declined briefly, but the widespread availability of abortion pills has fueled a sharp rebound — from approximately 933,000 annually to more than 1.1 million.
This drug is crossing state lines not in speedboats, but in mail trucks. Federal law prohibits the mailing of abortion-inducing drugs, yet the law is not being enforced. At the same time, the FDA has refused to reverse a Biden-era policy that dramatically expanded access to these drugs. They are deadly to unborn children, and mounting evidence shows they are dangerous for women as well, with studies indicating serious adverse effects in roughly 11% of cases.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill (R) has indicted doctors from states such as California and New York for illegally mailing abortion drugs into Louisiana. Several other states report similar violations, with lives lost and laws ignored.
If the justification for blowing up drug boats and extraditing a foreign president is the trafficking of deadly illegal drugs, then consistency demands action here as well. If the Trump Department of Justice and FDA will not reverse these policies and respect the rights of states to protect both mothers and the unborn, then states may soon conclude they need their own “Maduro law” — one that allows extraordinary measures when the federal government refuses to act.
