Andrew Bailey, the newly appointed “co-deputy director” of the FBI, demanded records about minors seeking abortions while he served as Missouri’s attorney general, but a judge temporarily blocked the subpoena.
Bailey announced Monday that he was stepping into the role — which he will share with the bureau’s current deputy director Dan Bongino — and leaving his post as Missouri attorney general.
In March, Bailey subpoenaed Missouri Abortion Fund, a nonprofit that provides financial assistance for locals who can’t afford the full cost of abortion care, as part of the state’s 2024 lawsuit against Planned Parenthood Great Plains, court records show. The subpoena demanded the nonprofit hand over documents about minors seeking abortions as well as its communication with the branch of Planned Parenthood, records show. Parental consent is required for anyone under 18 seeking an abortion, Missouri law dictates.
The subpoena was an “an abuse of government power” and a “fishing expedition,” Elad Gross, a lawyer for the nonprofit, which is not a party in the case, told the Missouri Independent in April.
The attorney general’s “use of its governmental power to demand records from non-party Missouri Abortion Fund is a violation of the right to reproductive freedom,” Gross wrote in a filing, objecting to the subpoena. The judge overseeing the case temporarily blocked the subpoena in April.
The Independent has reached out to the nonprofit and Planned Parenthood about Bailey’s new role.
In the lawsuit, filed in February 2024, accused Planned Parenthood Great Plains of “trafficking” minors across state lines for abortions without obtaining parental consent.
The suit stems from a video from Project Veritas, a far-right activist group known for recording undercover videos, that depicts a man asking Planned Parenthood workers if his alleged 13-year-old niece could get an abortion without her parents finding out.
In an attempt to throw out the suit, Planned Parenthood called the scenario “fictitious” and argued the video was heavily edited and inaccurate. The court has denied its motions to dismiss the case and Planned Parenthood has filed a counterclaim.
This lawsuit is one of several attacks Bailey has made against reproductive rights groups.
Last month, Bailey escalated his onslaught to a national scale. He sued Planned Parenthood Federation of America, alleging the nonprofit spread misinformation about the dangers of mifepristone, one drug in a two-drug regimen for medication abortions.
Bailey’s lawsuit comes as part of a larger effort — following the fall of Roe v. Wade — to question the safety of the abortion drug. Anti-abortion activists earlier this year pushed a report by right-wing think tank Ethics and Public Policy Center claiming serious complications from mifepristone use were 22 times higher than previously reported. Critics slammed the report as “bogus.”
The Trump administration has also targeted Planned Parenthood. President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” included a provision that would have stripped Medicaid funds from going toward nonprofits that received more than $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023, including Planned Parenthood and a network of clinics in Maine. A federal judge last month ordered the government to continue reimbursing Planned Parenthood with Medicaid funds.
