On Monday, it will be two years since five U.S. Supreme Court justices were overruled. Roe c.Wade and ushered in an era of decimated access to abortion and reproductive health. Former president Donald Trumpwho appointed three of the five justices who overturned the landmark 1973 case, still boasts about the ramifications of the Dobbs decision.
Trump’s own message about how he would continue his anti-abortion legacy in a second term has been inconsistent in its ever-changing attempt to appeal to his evangelical base — while keeping the 63 percent in mind of Americans who say abortion should be legal in all cases. or in most cases. (This group of people, as the 2022 midterms and statewide elections have shown, also vote).
“We also achieved what the pro-life movement fought for for 49 years, and we took abortion out of the federal government and back to the states,” Trump told a crowd of voters evangelicals of the Faith & Freedom Coalition in Washington. Washington, DC, Saturday. “The way everyone and all the lawyers have always said it should be. »
The past 24 months have culminated in an America where nearly half of states restrict abortion earlier in pregnancy than the standard set by Deer, and 14 states ban abortions in virtually all cases.
The fallout from the ruling by the nation’s highest court has led to 171,000 patients seeking out-of-state abortion care in 2023. Maternal health care deserts are growing and worsening. Women are asking their state supreme courts to provide abortions that could save their lives. In states where abortion is restricted, more pregnant women die. Every week seems to bring new challenges to abortion access and new victories for the movement to maintain comprehensive reproductive health care.
With an electoral cycle in full swing and DobbsIn many ways, the future of abortion access is uncertain.
At this point in the race, Trump is considering leaving abortion access up to the states — although he has previously indicated he would support a 15-week ban nationwide. Although he didn’t follow that rhetoric when talking about Arizona, Alabama and Florida, the former president recently told House Republicans they should send a different message on the abortion in a closed meeting. Trump wanted House members to support the party’s role in ending Roe deer and talk about abortion as a state rights issue, not a federal issue.
In 2023, there were approximately 642,700 medical abortions in the United States, or approximately 63% of all abortions performed in the formal health care system, according to the Guttmacher Institute. This figure would probably be higher if we took into account the use of abortion pills outside of these circuits. This is a marked increase from before Dobbswhile medical abortions accounted for approximately 53% of all pregnancy terminations in 2020.
Anti-abortion activists and right-wing politicians hope to minimize access to abortion pills, which can be particularly helpful to people experiencing domestic violence.
To do this, conservatives are pushing to enforce an 1873 anti-obscenity law called the Comstock Act. The law prohibits the mailing of “any article or thing designed, adapted or intended to produce abortion, or for any indecent or immoral use.” This includes abortion pills, but it could also include the tools needed to perform medical and procedural abortions. This strategy is explicitly outlined in Project 2025, a guide to how the next Republican presidential term should unfold, managed by the Heritage Foundation.
“The Department of Justice of the next conservative administration should therefore announce its intention to enforce federal law against the suppliers and distributors of these pills,” reads the “Leadership Mandate” of Project 2025.
Congressional Democrats on Thursday introduced new legislation to repeal the portion of the law that could be used to ban the mailing of abortion-related items. The bill, presented by Senator Tina Smith and co-sponsored by more than a dozen other Senate Democrats, is called the “Stop Comstock Act.”
While Trump, who has said he would not stop states from tracking individual pregnancies and prosecuting those who abort them, says he wants those decisions to remain made at the individual state level, those on his side are looking to take action at the federal level – and they are not staying silent about it.
“What we are communicating is that yes, it is a state issue. This is not just a state problem. Kristi Hamrick, chief political strategist of Students for Life, said. “Abortion is federal, paid for by taxpayers and pushed by federal agencies. Any discussion of militarized agencies and government abuses of power must include the issue of abortion, at all levels. »
The Hyde Amendment, implemented in 1977, prohibits the use of federal funds for abortion except in cases of life endangerment, rape or incest.
Heading into this week’s first presidential debate of the election season, it’s clear that Trump’s anti-abortion base is excited to put him back in office, but would like to see bold messaging around his tenure. Dobbs legacy and how he plans to continue it.
“Like Ronald Reagan,” Trump told the evangelical crowd Saturday, “I believe in maternal life exceptions, rape and incest.” He also noted, “You have to go with your heart. You must also remember that you must be elected. The crowd, according to Reuters, gave a “lukewarm reception” while some began chanting “No dead babies!” »
” After the Dobbs decision, for which President Trump deserves enormous credit for his three appointments to the Supreme Court, he must certainly reassure pro-life Americans, pro-life voters, that he will act as consistently in the future than in the past, Albert Möhlera prominent evangelical theologian and president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said.
“The president has an opportunity to win a big victory. »
