Donald Trump’s second presidential term could herald a new wave of attacks on abortion access across the United States – with or without a unified Republican Congress.
Here’s a closer look at the legal tools available to a future administration intent on restricting abortion rights — and how abortion rights advocates are preparing to respond.
Federal actions
For abortion rights supporters, the nightmare scenario is a Republican-controlled Congress that passes sweeping nationwide restrictions or an outright ban.
But even without that, Trump could “do a lot of damage to abortion access” through federal actions and judicial appointments, said American University law professor Lewis Grossman.
Former Republican President .
While Trump has at times hinted at moderation during the 2024 campaign – even suggesting he might veto any anti-abortion “ban” that comes to his desk – some fear .
Published by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation, the document offers a roadmap for tighter restrictions on the executive branch, developed with input from former Trump officials. Trump has publicly distanced himself from the document.
New conditions on the abortion pill
Experts predict abortion pills could be Trump’s first target.
and misoprostol, which empties the uterus, accounted for nearly two-thirds of abortions in the United States last year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Medical abortion required clinic visits. However, President Joe Biden’s government made telemedicine prescribing and mailed pills permanent in 2021.
A Trump administration could reinstate attendance requirements or roll back other relaxed regulations, said George Washington University law professor Sonia Suter — an easier step than revoking approval, although that is also possible.
Reviving 19th-century obscenity law
Anti-abortion activists keep an eye on the Comstock Act, a 19th-century law that prohibits the mailing of “obscene” material, including items to “produce abortion.”
The US Department of Justice under Biden currently interprets this law as inapplicable to approved abortion pills.
But Suter said a broad interpretation could apply to “anything used to produce an abortion — surgical abortion materials — that could effectively create a nationwide ban.”
This could disrupt the supply chain at clinics and hospitals in states where abortion is currently legal and where it will soon be permitted following state-level referendums that took place alongside the November 5 US presidential election.
Residents of a handful of states have expanded or enshrined in law the right to have an abortion, results showed Wednesday, while voters in Florida and South Dakota defeated measures that would have increased access.
In Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and New York, voters voted in favor of measures in favor of abortion rights.
Judicial appointments and more
A Trump administration could also seek to roll back the stringent patient privacy protections Biden put in place for women seeking abortions out of state, Suter said, paving the way for possible prosecution when they return home.
Although the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has already overturned Roe v Wade, experts say the power to appoint federal judges remains critical.
Courts may soon be called upon to decide the fate of state laws that make it harder for women to access care in more abortion-friendly states, Grossman said.
“Deadly Threat”
Abortion rights supporters quickly branded Trump’s election victory a “deadly threat.”
A second Trump administration would compound the “harms” of the first “with new, potentially much worse harms,” Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, warned in a statement Wednesday.
“We will vigorously oppose any attempts to slow progress,” he said, vowing to “fight them at all times.”
