Sen. Bernie Moreno is pressing the Justice Department to pursue federal charges against an Ohio doctor who used a Biden-era mail-order abortion pill policy to obtain mifepristone under a stolen identity, then crushed the pills and force-fed them to his pregnant girlfriend.
Moreno, a Republican representing Ohio, sent a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche laying out the case of Hassan Abbas, a doctor who was recently sentenced to just six months in jail after pleading to identity fraud and deception to obtain a dangerous drug. Abbas received two years of probation on top of the jail time, a sentence Moreno called grossly inadequate for what he described as a violent assault on a pregnant woman and her unborn child.
The case sits at the intersection of two live fights in Washington: the future of the Biden administration's 2023 decision to let abortion pills be prescribed over telehealth and shipped through the mail, and the broader question of whether federal sentencing tools should apply when those drugs are obtained through fraud and used to harm someone against her will.
Prosecutors said Abbas used his estranged wife's personal information to order mifepristone by mail after his girlfriend, a former patient, told him she was pregnant. Under the Biden-era FDA policy change, mifepristone no longer had to be dispensed in person at a clinic, medical office, or hospital. The 2023 Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy revision allowed prescriptions via telehealth and delivery through the postal system.
Abbas exploited that system. As Moreno wrote to Blanche:
"Without ever setting foot inside a pharmacy, Mr. Abbas procured the mail-order abortion drugs fraudulently using his estranged wife's name."
The girlfriend told authorities Abbas held her down and forced her to ingest the crushed pills. After she physically escaped, she rushed to the hospital and began hemorrhaging.
Moreno did not mince words about the severity of what happened. In the letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, he wrote:
"It is hard for me to imagine a wickedness more significant than this."
Abbas's plea deal produced a sentence that struck Moreno as a failure of accountability. The senator pressed the point directly in his letter to the attorney general:
"What makes this even worse is that Mr. Hassan Abbas was only sentenced to six months of jail time and two years of probation. How can someone commit a crime so vile and only receive six months of jail time?"
Moreno asked the Department of Justice to review the case and determine whether federal charges should be brought against Abbas. The specific charges Abbas pleaded to, identity fraud and deception to obtain a dangerous drug, were not identified as state or federal in the available reporting. That distinction matters. If the charges were state-level, federal prosecutors could potentially bring separate counts under statutes covering mail fraud, identity theft, or drug misuse.
Neither the DOJ nor the attorney general's office has publicly responded to Moreno's letter.
The senator framed the Abbas case not as an isolated crime but as a foreseeable consequence of loosening drug-dispensing safeguards. Before the 2023 REMS change, a patient seeking mifepristone had to appear in person at a medical facility. The Biden administration's FDA removed that requirement, opening the door to telehealth prescriptions and direct-to-door mail delivery.
Moreno called those policies directly responsible for what happened to his constituent:
"Unsurprisingly, reckless [Biden-era mail-in abortion policies] are responsible for this hell-on-earth tragedy."
The old in-person requirement served as a basic check. A doctor ordering pills under someone else's name would have had to show up at a pharmacy or clinic, creating at least one point where the fraud could be caught. Mail delivery removed that barrier entirely.
Moreno's letter asked Blanche to move quickly to resolve Louisiana v. FDA, an ongoing court challenge in which Louisiana argues the FDA improperly stripped the in-person dispensing requirement. The senator wants the in-person rule reinstated while the FDA continues what his letter described as a "critical safety review of the drugs." The current mail-order rules remain in effect while the case works through the courts.
Moreno's letter carried two distinct asks. First, he wants the DOJ to review whether Abbas should face federal prosecution on top of his state-level plea deal. Second, he wants the attorney general to push for a resolution in Louisiana v. FDA that restores the in-person dispensing requirement nationwide.
The senator closed his letter with a direct appeal:
"I write to you today, [Attorney General Blanche], to respectfully request that you do everything in your power to ensure this depravity never happens again to a woman and their unborn child."
Several questions remain unanswered. The outcome of the girlfriend's hospitalization, including whether the pregnancy survived, was not addressed in Moreno's letter or in the reporting. The specific court and jurisdiction that handled Abbas's sentencing were not identified. And it remains unclear whether the FDA has taken any independent action in response to the case or to Moreno's concerns about the REMS change.
The Biden administration sold mail-order mifepristone as a matter of access and convenience. An Ohio woman held down and force-fed crushed pills by a man who obtained them under a stolen name is the cost of removing every safeguard between a dangerous drug and anyone willing to lie to get it.
