Three years ago today, conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices hand-picked by Donald Trump cemented their place on the wrong side of history—overturning Roe v. Wade and taking away a constitutional right for the first time in U.S. history.
As that decision sent abortion trigger bans into immediate effect across the nation, American women and girls were hurled into a living hell. A 13-year-old was forced to give birth under Mississippi’s draconian abortion ban, while other minors nationwide have had to flee their home states in desperate search of care. Doctors were—and are still—forced to withhold abortion care from women on the brink of death. A brain-dead woman in Georgia is currently being treated as an incubator for a fetus, forcibly kept on life support by the state.
Cruel and heartbreaking stories like these ones are countless; every day, women across the U.S. are living through the consequences of archaic and draconian laws—under which we have no say in decisions about our bodies, lives, and futures—all because Republicans decided to choose for us.
The most gut-wrenching part of all of this cruelty? Things are about to get a lot worse.
This anniversary of the Dobbs decision is the first under a Donald Trump presidency. The man who has proudly and repeatedly taken credit for overturning Roe and sending these abortion bans into effect. The architect of the health care crisis that has swept over this country.
Trump and his allies were never going to stop at Roe v. Wade. These extremists are all-in on their crusade to ban abortion across the nation. And they’re entirely comfortable endangering our lives in order to do it.
Just weeks ago, Trump rescinded federal guidance requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortion care when a pregnant patient’s life is at risk, regardless of abortion bans in the state. It’s a calculated effort to cause confusion and prevent emergency care by stirring fear of prosecution among doctors, and it puts women’s lives at risk.
Requiring hospitals to perform an abortion to save a patient’s life isn’t controversial. It shouldn’t be up for debate. But Republicans have made it a top political priority.
Take RFK Jr., who’s using a junk science “report” by a conservative think tank as a basis for pushing the FDA to re-review its approval of mifepristone—an abortion pill long proven to be safe and effective, even more so than commonplace drugs like penicillin, Tylenol and Viagra.
Let’s be clear: this is about laying the groundwork to ban the medication—which is used in over 60% of all abortions in the U.S. That would amount to a national abortion ban in red and blue states. Full stop.
We can’t trust what Republicans say; we can only trust what they show us. And what they’ve shown us is that they will continue this full-on assault on our bodies and our rights until they’re stripped of their power to do so.
While they spout lies about leaving abortion up to voters in the states, U.S. House Republicans snuck last-minute provisions into their budget bill targeting blue states that protect abortion, in a move that could aggressively reduce access for millions. And in states where voters last November turned out en masse to demand abortion access, state Republicans are actively working to negate the results.
What’s more, they’re working to make it harder for those very voters to use ballot initiatives to push back against bans they overwhelmingly oppose in the future.
Attacks on abortion are still in full-force. And they’re not going to stop. Over this year—and the next few years—we’re going to be flooded with even more agonizing stories, statistics and efforts to erode access to this fundamental care. It’s time to double down and fight back.
If we want to see a future with abortion and other rights intact, we need to create a federal check on the Republicans playing politics with our bodies, our medical decisions and our lives. That means ousting extreme anti-choice Republicans from their seats and taking back Democratic control of the U.S. House. Republicans right now have the slimmest House majority in history—and we can take back power in 2026.
At EMILYs List, we know that pro-choice Democratic women, who won in many of the toughest down ballot races across the map in 2024, will be at the center of that fight. Through Mission Majority, our initiative to regain control of the House, we’re working to replace 46 Republicans with women who have proven that they will fight to restore and defend abortion like countless American lives depend on it.
Because, after three years of living without the protections of Roe v. Wade, we know now more than ever that they do.
Jessica Mackler is the president of EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, which has worked to elect Democratic pro-choice women at every level of the ballot for 40 years.
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