Kentucky AG subpoenas gas stations in probe of abortion pill ads

By Daniel Wiessner

Jan 23 (Reuters) - The office of Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, a Republican, said on Friday that it has launched an investigation into nonprofit Mayday Health and other groups that may be violating state law by helping women access abortion pills.

Coleman's office in a release said it had subpoenaed six gas stations in Kentucky that displayed advertisements for Mayday Health, which provides information about abortion drugs and has also been targeted by Republican officials in South Dakota.

The subpoenas seek information about ads that read “Pregnant? Don’t want to be?" and include the address of Mayday's website. Citing news reports, Coleman's office said Mayday has paid to run the ads at 104 rural gas stations in multiple states.

“These deadly and unlawful pills cannot be allowed to continue flooding into Kentucky through the mail, and we will thoroughly pursue every lead to hold bad actors accountable," Coleman, a Republican, said in a statement.

It was not clear from the release whether the gas stations could be found liable under Kentucky law for displaying the ads, and Coleman's office did not immediately respond to requests for clarification.

Liv Raisner, Mayday's executive director, said in a statement that Coleman "doesn’t like free speech as much as he says."

"We think everyone in Kentucky, and South Dakota, and around the country, should know that abortion pills are safe and available," Raisner said.

Mayday helps women access abortion pills but does not prescribe or distribute them.

Last month, South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley filed a court petition accusing the group of deceptive trade practices and seeking to block the gas station ads from being displayed in that state.

Mayday in turn sued Jackley, saying he was violating the group's free-speech rights, and a federal judge in Manhattan this week blocked his office from engaging in any efforts to have the ads taken down pending further litigation.

On Friday, Coleman's office said Mayday and other unidentified groups may be violating a 2022 Kentucky law that prohibits the mailing or delivery of abortion-inducing drugs, and a separate consumer protection law banning deceptive communications.

The state probes are one front in a larger battle over access to the drug mifepristone, the first in a two-drug regimen taken during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court rolled back the constitutional right to abortion in 2022, nearly half of U.S. states have banned or significantly restricted the procedure. That has driven a surge in medication abortion, which now accounts for more than 60% of abortions nationwide.

Like Kentucky, many Republican-led states are now seeking to curb access to mifepristone, which can be prescribed remotely and distributed through the mail. Six states in three separate cases are challenging federal regulations that made it easier to access mifepristone or approved different versions of the drug, including the initial approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2000.

Read more:

US abortion pill access under fire: Lawsuits and regulatory battles to watch in 2026

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Texas, Florida mount latest legal challenge to FDA abortion pill approval