Donald Trump’s Abortion Policies Will Continue to Harm All Women

Donald Trump has failed women and families. Whether or not you believe that he, personally, doesn’t care about abortion — or is even pro-choice — his actions have created harm and suffering. And he is promising more of the same if he is reelected. Returning abortion to states is exactly what overturning Roe did, and women have died because of it.

Donald Trump said he would appoint justices that would overturn Roe. He picked justices from a list provided to him of people who would overturn Roe, and then those justices, predictably, overturned Roe. He has bragged multiple times since the ruling that he himself got rid of Roe.

Now, he is trying to convince us — after we have watched women die because of the overturn of Roe —that this is what everyone wants. Pregnant women want to live in fear of being denied life-saving care. Women want to have a state government decide whether or not they have the fundamental right to control their bodies. Because somehow it’s better when that government does it than when the federal government does.

READ: Abortion bans, low wages, and public underinvestment are interconnected economic policy tools to disempower and control workers

Every state ban that has come since Roe was overturned is only possible because of Donald Trump.

Sending abortion back to the states means that a government is still interfering with a woman’s fundamental right to control her body. Letting the voters decide is allowing thousands of people who are not doctors and not the woman who needs care to decide on the status of a basic right.

Sending abortion to the states means a fundamental right is subject to the whims of geography.

Sending abortion back to the states means that the rules can change month to month or year to year. With no federal protection for abortion, a woman could become pregnant in a state that allows care and live in a state that doesn’t while she is pregnant because some seats in a legislature changed hands and the law changed. People in states like Florida had appointments cancelled because abortion was illegal one day and literally illegal the next.

READ: Report: Mothers in states with abortion bans nearly 3 times more likely to die

Women in states where abortion is restricted or banned are dying.

Amber Thurman’s death received national attention because it is the first documented instance of a death that can be directly tied to a state abortion ban enacted since Dobbs. Since the initial report was released, Candi Miller also lost her life. They will not be the only victims.

Evidence shows that pregnant women and infants living in states with abortion bans are at higher risk of death and have poorer health outcomes generally than those who live in pro-choice states. This was true even before Roe was overturned. A study by several prominent organizations, including Tulane School of Public Health, found that in 2020 maternal death rates were 62 percent higher in states that restricted abortion access.

That trend has continued since states have been allowed to enact complete bans. In Texas, the maternal death rate increased 56 percent from 2019 to 2022, compared with in increase of just 11 percent nationwide.

Since Idaho enacted a complete ban, the state has lost almost a quarter of its practicing obstetricians and 55% of its high-risk obstetricians. This loss puts all women at risk, whether they are pregnant or not, simply because they do not have access to adequate care.

Donald Trump likes to lie about “post-birth” abortion, which, we shouldn’t have to say, is murder and illegal everywhere. However, his “accomplishment” of overturning Roe is helping increase infant mortality rates. Texas’s infant mortality rate increased 12.9 percent in the year after it banned abortion, compared to a 1.8 percent increase nationwide.

Additional studies have shown that pregnant women are three times more likely to die in states that ban abortions, and infants are 30 percent more likely to die in restrictive states.

This is what leaving abortion to the states looks like. Women are less safe, children are less safe, families are less safe. Period.