What does a second Trump term mean for women’s rights in the US?
Unfortunately, we have considerable precedent to rely on. Some people say we don’t have to take what Trump says at face value, but I think we do. And if we listen to what he says, we should be concerned about the significant impact on women’s rights his second administration could have.
I’ll start with the most obvious. There’s a high risk of abortion rights being rolled back even further. After the Supreme Court ruling in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional abortion protection, many states quickly restricted or banned abortion. Other states took the opposite approach and enshrined abortion rights in their constitutions. But this administration could use federal power to further restrict abortions even in states with constitutional amendments and state laws protecting abortion rights.
For example, the Comstock Act, from 1873, is a law that prohibits mailing “obscene” materials. The law has been mostly dormant for years. But some conservative groups are talking about urging the Trump administration to begin enforcing the Comstock Act and prosecuting people, including doctors, who mail or receive abortion pills.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could create more obstacles or bureaucracy to access abortion pills, like mifepristone, or even contraception. Anti-abortion groups have been trying to restrict access to mifepristone, a safe and effective drug used for medication abortion, through the courts. Under the Biden administration, the FDA has already been fighting to keep mifepristone available without new restrictions. But Trump could appoint a new head of the FDA, even though the current commissioner should stay in place until 2026. In the US, 63 percent of abortions are done in the first trimester with medication.
There’s also concern and uncertainty about what Trump would do if Congress passed a national abortion ban.
Abortion bans and restrictions have disproportionately harmed those already facing systemic barriers to care, including Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, people with low incomes, and people under 18.
Based on Trump’s actions in his first term, other risks include the possibility that insurance companies may stop covering abortion medicine or birth control.
What are women’s rights groups already doing to combat threats to abortion rights?
Organizing, litigating, advocating, and speaking up. Around the world, women’s rights activists are more organized and coordinated than ever. We’re using every space possible not only to change legislation but also to make communities understand the dangers that come with restricting women’s access to health care. We are instilling a sense of urgency in protecting rights. In this US election, 10 states had ballot measures related to abortion. In eight of them, more than 50 percent of voters supported abortion rights, even though Florida’s initiative lost because it required 60 percent of the votes and fell short by reaching 57 percent. These are women’s rights gains led by women organizing and pushing back.
In Latin America, we have seen amazing progress on reproductive rights thanks to a coordinated cross-country movement called the green wave. Named for the green bandanas women wear during massive reproductive rights marches, the green wave is an example of activism that has occupied the streets, courts, legislatures, and kitchens. There is no space where women are not organized and ready to fight back.
In what other ways do you expect Trump’s second term will affect women’s rights?
The Trump administration could greatly impact the rights of women in the workplace. Under President Barack Obama, companies were ordered to provide salary data on gender and race pay gaps, but Trump tried to roll back this policy. Worksite immigration enforcement actions that took place under the previous Trump administration had tremendous impacts on the rights of undocumented women and their families and caused many to fear speaking out against workplace abuses.
We can expect issues on health care beyond abortion and contraception. For example, Black women are much more likely to die from preventable causes like cervical cancer. The HPV vaccine is essential to preventing cervical cancer, but racism, poverty, and inequality create barriers to information and access to this vaccine, as well as treatments for this condition. Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services has a record of spreading misinformation about vaccines.
The coming years may also include attempts by the White House through Congress to undermine public health insurance programs like Medicaid, which tens of millions of women with low incomes rely on to pay for health care. Although the Congress did not succeed during Trump’s first term , one can expect Congress will attempt to repeal or significantly reduce the healthcare protections in the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, and allow public subsidies that make private health insurance affordable for millions more to expire.
We should also look at how changes to freedom of expression and censorship will affect women and LGBT people. At least 16 states already have provisions restricting LGBT content in schools. What type of education will children in schools get about human rights? Gender equality has long been framed as a threat to traditional families. Trump has indicated that he would like to eliminate the Department of Education, which issues guidance on how anti-discrimination laws apply to groups of students, including girls, LGBT students, and racial minorities. While it would take an act of Congress to eliminate the Education Department, Trump could take action that would increase the likelihood that children receive biased or no education about gender equality.
I think the value of women’s voices might be undermined as well. Trump said: “I’ll protect women whether they like it or not.” He doesn’t see women as autonomous individuals who decide freely what we want to do with our lives.
It’s not just women’s rights in the US that are at risk. How could Trump’s second term affect women’s rights internationally?
In 2020, during the first Trump term, the US led and co-signed the Geneva Consensus Declaration. While the declaration’s full name includes the phrase “promoting women’s health and strengthening the family,” its real intention was to ban abortion and promote a stereotypical, traditional idea of women. Biden withdrew US support to the declaration, which has mostly been backed by governments with terrible women’s and human rights records.
It's very problematic, this worldwide movement that uses narratives about protecting children and freedom of religion as excuses to push women back into spaces where women’s purpose is to give support other people’s life plans and be a tool for population growth.
We need to push countries to reject this declaration.
Also, we expect Trump will reinstate the Mexico City Policy, better known as the “global gag rule,” a US government policy popular with Republican presidents that prevents foreign nongovernmental organizations from receiving US federal funding if they provide abortion counseling or referrals. Also, during his first term, Trump cut US funding for the United Nations Population Fund, which supports family planning worldwide. We need to see what will happen this time.
What are Human Rights Watch’s plans for working on women’s rights under these renewed threats?
We do what we do best. We investigate abuses, expose our findings, and push for change.
Unfortunately, things are moving quickly in the direction we feared. Trump’s Republican Party controls both houses of Congress. The US president has broad powers to appoint federal judges, not just the justices to the Supreme Court, who since his first term have repeatedly issued rulings that harm women’s rights. There’s been lots of talk about the lack of guardrails that would keep the executive under check, which we will be looking at very closely. Democracy cannot function without effective checks and balances, and women’s rights erode quickly without them.
We will keep our antennas up and will be ready to surface things that may not be obvious to the general public. As the saying goes, “the devil is in the details,” and we will focus on those. We will hold the US government accountable just as we do with all governments everywhere.
What has you feeling hopeful?
The larger women’s rights movement around the world. The connections today between Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe. Every part of the world is connected. And it’s not a movement that just fights for abortion rights. They also organize for freedom of expression, economic rights, and democracy. For example, the green bandanas started as a symbol for abortion rights in Argentina, but today people wearing green bandanas protest about people who were forcibly disappeared, or militarization in Mexico. It gives me hope that we have a connected community of women in solidarity with each other.
And I hope that human rights activists and other opponents of authoritarianism understand that the fight for women’s rights is the fight for democracy.
