Abortion opponents unveil strategy to undermine state protections

Anti-abortion groups are plotting an aggressive postelection strategy to undo federal and state protections for abortion, including ballot measures passed in the past two years after the end of Roe v. Wade.

The strategy outlined in Students for Life's "Make America Pro-Life Again Roadmap" includes filing lawsuits challenging the federal regulation of the abortion pill and pushing for the passage of legislation in states that target the use, sale and distribution of abortion medication.

The effort will kick off in earnest next year. The group believes their strategy of lawsuits and legislation will be able to successfully circumvent the states that have enshrined abortion protections in their constitutions

“We have a siege engine ready for these legal walls that we'll face at some state legislatures and legislative levels and also the federal level,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life. “Even if your state has said abortion is now constitutionally protected, that doesn't mean every action of abortion, every type of abortion.”

Many of the bills target mifepristone — one of the drugs commonly used in medication abortions. Some seek an outright ban, while others seek to replicate Louisiana's legislation that classifies the drug as a controlled substance.

Others aim to restrict access by claiming the drugs pose environmental risks. At least one piece of legislation argues that the chemicals in abortion pills pose a public health threat once they are passed through a person and then flushed into wastewater.

Emboldened by a Trump victory and Republican control of the Senate and House, Students for Life and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA) have a laundry list of policies they want to see.

President-elect Trump and GOP politicians across the country largely stayed away from campaigning on abortion, saying the issue now rests with states.

But Students for Life is allying with conservative members and lobbying Congress to prohibit telehealth for abortions and slashing federal funding from colleges and universities if they have their campus health services provide medication or surgical abortions to students or employees.

SBA, in a memo shared with The Hill, called for the Trump administration to undo every policy enacted by the Biden administration that expanded access to abortion.

The group cited work done by the first iteration of the Trump administration and called for its reintroduction, including banning providers participating in the Title X family planning grant program from referring patients for abortions.

“The commonsense policies of Pres. Trump’s first term become the baseline for the second,” SBA President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement.

The group also called for Trump to free activists currently in prison for protesting and blocking sidewalks outside abortion clinics.

Abortion rights advocates said they know what’s coming and are confident that current support for recently passed state protections for abortion will hold strong against anti-abortion groups’ efforts. Last week, seven out of ten states that voted on abortion rights amendments passed them.

“People are dying because of Trump abortion bans — it is no surprise to us that SBA and other anti-abortion groups’ policy platform is as simple as this: more cruelty,” said Angela Vasquez-Giroux, vice president of communications of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, in a statement.

Vasquez-Giroux noted that even in states like Arizona, Missouri and Nevada, where Trump won the 2024 presidential election, voters also chose to pass ballot initiatives adding protections for abortion.

“Last we checked, however (spoiler alert: it was today), abortion rights have majority support across the country.”