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Up until now, the second Trump Department of Justice has been a massive disappointment for the anti-abortion movement. That may all be about to change. At his recent confirmation hearings, Todd Blanche, Trump’s choice to replace Pam Bondi as attorney general, had several revealing exchanges with Republican senators on abortion. Blanche, the acting attorney general, pledged to use DOJ resources to stop telehealth abortion, and even appeared to agree with Sen. Ted Cruz that the Comstock Act, a 19th-century obscenity law, operates as a de facto national ban on abortion.

Blanche has yet to make it out of committee, much less get confirmed, but Republicans already seem to expect a change in direction at the DOJ: This week, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley sent the Department of Justice a criminal referral involving Plan C, an organization that provides information about how people in all 50 states can obtain abortion medication.

It may be hard to make sense of Hawley’s high expectations. For years, the Trump White House has consistently bullied congressional Republicans and taken anti-abortion organizers for granted. Any conservative politician who dared to push back could expect to lose their primary to a Trump-backed challenger. Abortion foes unwilling to vote for Democrats had little choice but to stick with Trump, even if he has remained resolutely indifferent to their priorities.

Congressional Republicans have hardly been more forthcoming. The anti-abortion movement’s signature win during the second Trump administration—a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act defunding Planned Parenthood—has now expired as congressional Republicans distance themselves from an unpopular idea ahead of the midterm.

But now, the president has........

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