Abortion pill ads at KY gas stations target of attorney general investigation

By: Austin Horn, originally published January 23, 2026, Lexington Herald Leader

Attorney General Russell Coleman announced an investigation Friday into gas stations and companies that “could be participating” in delivering pills to Kentucky for medical abortions.

Coleman’s office sent subpoenas to six gas stations in Western Kentucky counties — Christian, Logan and Simpson — that had advertisements for abortion medication, according to a Jan. 23 news release from his office.

The advertisements read: “Pregnant? Don’t want to be? Learn more at Mayday Health.”

Mayday Health’s website says it is a reproductive health education nonprofit, which aims to “share information about abortion pills, birth control and gender-affirming care in any state.”

Medication used to abort pregnancies made headlines in Kentucky recently when a Wolfe County woman was indicted on charges of fetal homicide, concealing the birth of an infant, evidence tampering and abuse of a corpse after she induced an abortion using medication she’d purchased online.

The charge of fetal homicide was later dismissed, as the statute does not apply to women who end their pregnancies.

A 2022 law passed by the Kentucky General Assembly, which had already enacted a near-total ban on abortion in the state following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs overturning landmark Roe v. Wade, prohibited mailing or delivering abortion medication in Kentucky.

“Out of state activist groups who are targeting the vulnerable here should be on notice: Keep your illegal pills out of our Commonwealth or face the full weight of the Attorney General’s Office,” Coleman wrote in the news release. “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.”

This is not Mayday Health’s first rodeo. In fact, they’re locked in a similar legal battle with the attorney general of South Dakota.

Liv Raisner, the nonprofit’s executive director, said in a statement to the Herald-Leader that the ads are free speech.

“It turns out Attorney General Russell Coleman doesn’t like free speech as much as he says. This just happened when we put up signs at gas stations in South Dakota,” Raisner wrote. “We won a temporary restraining order against the South Dakota Attorney General.

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

The Kentucky chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which was previously involved in a class action lawsuit against Kentucky’s abortion ban, agreed with Raisner.

“We know abortion bans are harmful, particularly to vulnerable populations such as those in counties where there are no practicing obstetricians or gynecologists. The attorney general cannot prevent information about abortion from being shared in Kentucky, and any attempt to do so will only further isolate pregnant Kentuckians seeking to educate themselves about medical care,” Amber Duke, ACLU of Kentucky’s executive director, wrote.

This story has been updated with comments from Mayday Health and the ACLU of Kentucky.

Austin Horn is a politics reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

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