Donald Trump's incoming presidency doesn't bode well for anyone vested in reproductive healthcare. But the future of
In March,
Further compounding concerns is that the Trump 2016 administration and 2024 campaign team included Project 2025 contributors — contributors who helped outline conservative policy recommendations like forcing states to report personal information of all patients who received abortion care and restricting access to birth control and emergency contraception — and it's likely that reproductive freedoms will face a wave of legislative and legal challenges during the next four years.
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"We believe in access to healthcare for everyone, and we know that what's happening with this election puts that at risk even more than it was prior to the election," she says. "We know this is about controlling women's bodies — that's the intention, that's the threat. So we are heartbroken, but we are also resolved to continue to fight."
A federal ban on abortion
While Bandele isn't confident that Congress will be able to pull off a nationwide abortion ban in the next two years, it's important to acknowledge if such a ban were to go into effect, state-level protections would become irrelevant. This would include the new ballot measures passed in seven states in November, two of which overturned abortion restrictions in Arizona and Missouri.
While it may be difficult to imagine what the end of reproductive care looks like, one doesn't have to look further than red states with existing bans. For example, between 2019 and 2022, Texas maternal mortality cases rose by 56%, outdoing the national average of 11% by a longshot, according to the Gender Equity Policy Institute. The state's 2021 ban on abortion care, further emboldened by the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, has done the opposite of helping Americans build families, despite right-wing rhetoric saying otherwise, underscores Bandele.
"We see states with the most severe abortion bans, like Georgia, Louisiana and Texas, and we also see the highest rates of women not surviving labor and delivery," she says. "It is not enough for only some states to have [abortion] rights."
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Meanwhile, studies have repeatedly shown that abortion access and economic mobility are closely tied. Research from the University of California, Santa Barbara, found that access to abortion care is linked to higher college graduation rates, higher incomes and a lower likelihood of facing debt or eviction in the future. An expansion of abortion bans to any degree would likely worsen economic stability in a country where the price of groceries and gas was a huge driver to election polls.
The end of abortion pill access
Rather than focusing on a total ban, the Trump administration may put its efforts into criminalizing abortion medication, which accounted for 63% of all abortions in the U.S. last year, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The administration could take advantage of its new Food and Drug Administration appointees and restrict access to the medication (namely, Mifepristone and Misoprostol), ensuring it could be required to be prescribed in-person rather than via mail. The FDA could also try to eliminate the medication altogether by revoking FDA approval.
If not done through the FDA, the Trump administration may try to enforce the Comstock Act of 1873, which prohibits the mailing and receiving of "obscene" material, including anything used for an abortion. This would essentially criminalize the most accessible method of abortion care and put doctors and clinics at further legal risk.
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"This signals a larger agenda, especially when an administration is trying to invoke something from 1873," says Bandele. "This whole idea around 'make America great again' means going back to a time when Black people didn't have rights, when women didn't have rights, when Indigenous folks didn't have rights."
The fight for reproductive freedom continues
The Trump administration's threat to reproductive care goes further than abortion rights, with access to everything from contraceptives to IVF being called into question. But Bandele stresses that Americans don't lose hope for the future and remember how far past generations have come in the struggle for civil rights in the U.S.
"We continue to say how unprecedented the climate for organizing is right now, but that's not true," says Bandele. If we're talking about my grandmother and my great-grandmother, the conditions they were fighting in were similar, if not far worse."
Bandele asks that employers who stand behind reproductive rights put their money behind causes and candidates who are working toward protecting and expanding access.
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The business community has a very powerful voice, and a lot of times, it doesn't use that voice for the benefit of its employees," says Bandele. "But we know you can help candidates that will increase the quality of life for the members of your staff."
While the future of reproductive healthcare remains uncertain, Bandele is confident that legislators, lawyers, advocates and everyday Americans will fight against existing and potential new restrictions. But she cautions everyone engaged in the fight to pace themselves.
"The weight of this moment is heavy, and we often try to run before the wound has healed," says Bandele. "This is a relay marathon: You are standing on the shoulders of people who have run the marathon before, and there's another one coming. So you need to pace yourself and remember you're in this larger context."
