Abortion Rights Are Not Certain Under Trump, Despite Wins At State Level
Although the president-elect has said he won't sign a federal abortion ban, Donald Trump's second administration has the will and the tools to undo reproductive health policies. News outlets offer a preview of what could happen and how quickly things could change.
The New York Times:
How The Trump Administration Could Enact A Federal Abortion Ban
As support for abortion rights has grown in the two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, President-elect Donald J. Trump has distanced himself from a proposed federal ban on abortion, saying that he supports leaving regulation of the issue to the states. But Republicans and opponents of abortion rights will put pressure on him to enact one. While Republicans do not have the supermajority they need in the Senate to pass the 15-week ban they have proposed, groups that oppose abortion rights have written road maps that would allow Mr. Trump to effectively ban abortion without help from Congress. (Zernike, 11/6)
NBC News:
What Trump’s Victory Could Mean For Abortion Rights
President-elect Donald Trump has said he would not sign a federal abortion ban. But there are ways a new Trump administration could restrict abortion nationwide. One option is via Trump’s appointees to the Food and Drug Administration. Those leaders could try to get the agency to roll back certain changes made from 2016 to 2021 (in three presidential administrations, including Trump’s) that expanded access to the abortion medication mifepristone. Another path is for Trump appointees to the Justice Department to choose not to defend abortion pill access when legal challenges arise. Although the Supreme Court dismissed a case in June that sought to restrict access to mifepristone, the attorneys general of Idaho, Kansas and Missouri filed a similar suit last month. Both cases were filed in a federal court in Amarillo, Texas, where the sole judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, is a Trump appointee. (Bendix and Richardson, 11/7)
Slate:
The Next Trump Administration’s Crackdown on Abortion Will Be Swift, Brutal, and Nationwide
These victories for abortion are about to crash into the reality of a ruthlessly anti-choice administration. Although Trump claims he wants to leave abortion to the states, the reality is that abortion policy is set, in substantial part, at the federal level. Even if he rejects a congressional push for a new ban, which is uncertain, his appointees will still have the tools to enact devastating anti-abortion policies. (Stern, 11/6)
Guttmacher Institute:
10 Reasons A Second Trump Presidency Will Decimate Sexual And Reproductive Health
When President-Elect Donald Trump takes office again, in January, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) will face unprecedented threats from the federal level. The second Trump administration will not only reenact many hostile policies from the first but also almost certainly expand its assaults on SRHR in the United States and abroad. Guided by the detailed agenda for dismantling civil rights outlined by conservatives in Project 2025, the Trump-Vance administration will work quickly to implement new measures that erode bodily and reproductive autonomy. Our analysis highlights just a handful of the many attacks to expect in the first several months of his term. (Bernstein, Friedrich-Karnik and Damavandi, 11/6)
Stat:
Post-Roe Effort To Protect Abortion Rights Hits Its Limit, For Now
Advocates mounted a massive push to protect abortion rights at the state level in Tuesday’s election, but several notable defeats, and a new Trump presidency, leave abortion rights advocates staring down their biggest setbacks since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. (Owermohle, 11/6)
On the Supreme Court's role —
The Washington Post:
With Trump Win, Focus Turns To Older Supreme Court Justices
Some prominent voices on the left called earlier this year for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire while Joe Biden was still president, so a Democrat could nominate her replacement regardless of who won the election. Sotomayor, 70, is the oldest liberal justice and has Type 1 diabetes. Advocates feared a repeat of what happened with liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who declined to retire during President Barack Obama’s tenure and died on the bench in 2020, while Donald Trump was in office. The vacancy allowed Trump to nominate Amy Coney Barrett, cementing a powerful 6-3 conservative supermajority. (Jouvenal and Raji, 11/6)
On the electoral abortion divide —
Politico:
Harris Hoped To Ride Abortion To Another Post-Dobbs Democratic Victory. It Didn’t Work.
The issue failed to stop Donald Trump, who on Tuesday overcame a large gender gap — and Democrats’ relentless focus on women’s reproductive health — to win back the White House. (Ollstein and Messerly, 11/6)
Bloomberg:
Millions Of Voters Backed Trump And US Abortion On Election Day
For an issue that was considered central to the US presidential race, abortion rights turned out to be largely untethered to national politics. Case in point: At least 2.6 million voters cast ballots in favor of both Donald Trump and state-level abortion protections. (Butler, Tartar, Griffin, Meghjani, and Kao, 11/6)
Axios:
Trump's Election Win Reveals America's Abortion Divide
Voters sent conflicting signals about abortion access on Tuesday, approving ballot proposals in seven states to expand abortion rights while also electing Republicans who could provide the margins to pass a nationwide ban next year. (Goldman, 11/7)
