In the war against Trump-era authoritarianism and inequality, federal funding is another battlefront—and feminists are “battle ready.”
A fierce feminist resistance is ready to defend women’s rights at the federal level—and creatively expand equality protections in the states. This is the final installment in a four-part series on the steps activists are taking to fight for our rights amid Trump’s attacks on democracy.
Part 1 covered the organization Democracy Forward and its new initiative Democracy 2025, which is working to counter the Trump administration’s antidemocratic acts with swift legal challenges and other strategic responses. Part 2 discussed the Democratic governors and attorney generals who are working to “Trump-proof” their state’s existing laws and fight for legal protections for their residents. Part 3 tackled the specifics of state law and advocacy, while Part 4—below—gets into the issue of federal funding under Trump.
After a narrow political victory in November, a second Trump administration is now threatening to reverse decades of hard-fought gains for women and girls. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 calls for ending abortion; curtailing contraception; cutting programs supporting mothers and their children; eliminating Head Start childcare; rolling back women’s workplace rights and equal pay measures; undermining LGBTQ+ rights; gutting Title IX protections against sexual assault and harassment; investigating and prosecuting universities and other entities over the use of diversity, equity and inclusion policies; and so much more.
Funding Fights
Federal funding is another battlefront.
“In the last Trump administration, we saw the federal government unlawfully weaponize the federal grant process to abruptly undermine federal funding for women’s health programs,” said Skye Perryman, who was a member of the all-women team of lawyers who successfully challenged those actions to restore the funds. “I think that you will see the weaponization of the federal grant process in the next Trump administration. Our team is working with others and prepared to respond to that.”
Project 2025 proposes cutting off critical federal dollars, such as Medicaid funding, in states that won’t adopt antiabortion policies—though Autumn Katz, the Center for Reproductive Rights’ associate director of U.S. litigation, said “they will be facing a slew of legal challenges if they do that.”
“This comes on the heels of President Trump pardoning several antiabortion activists who engaged in intimidation and violence towards medical care professionals who care for women and Secretary Rubio … directing the United States to rejoin an international antiabortion pact with countries including Saudi Arabia and Uganda,” said Perryman.
Trump’s first Department of Health and Human Services imposed a domestic gag rule barring reproductive health clinics from Title X funding if they counseled or referred patients for abortion. Many clinics lost that funding. “There were multiple lawsuits filed and the rules they had put in place were enjoined,” Katz noted, adding that she is confident lawsuits will be filed if the new administration reimposes a gag rule.
In his second term, Trump has already issued an executive order reaffirming the Hyde Amendment and other restrictions on the use of federal funding for abortion.
“With these executive orders, the Trump-Vance administration is wasting no time in adopting policies that show a callous disregard for women’s lives—seeking to erase protections the Biden administration put in place to protect women’s health and lives, including those of our service members and veterans,” said Perryman.
Another battle will be waged against funding for religious nonprofits that masquerade as health clinics, calling themselves “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs) and using deceptive tactics and medical disinformation to prevent women facing unintended pregnancies from accessing abortion and contraception. Project 2025 proposes redirecting federal funding, including Title X family-planning funds, to antiabortion organizations.
“CPCs have already secured surging state tax dollars— a whopping half a billion since 2021—despite being a multibillion-dollar industry with mounting evidence of financial waste and unsafe health, safety and privacy practices,” said Jenifer McKenna of the Reproductive Health and Freedom Watch, which monitors the industry.
CPCs claim to offer healthcare but aren’t regulated by any of the health, safety, licensing or privacy standards governing medical offices. Moreover, they are collecting vast troves of sensitive information from pregnant women with no privacy protections while misleading clients about the confidentiality of their data—many even lie that they’re covered by HIPAA, the federal rule that protects the release of a person’s medical records without their consent.
“In short,” McKenna said, “these are unregulated pregnancy clinics, cardinal to the antiabortion movement, threatening the public health and surveilling pregnant women on the public dime.
Reproductive Health and Freedom Watch provides research and resources to empower officials and advocates to expose CPC industry misconduct.
“As CPCs aim to siphon even more public funding in 2025, we will vigorously challenge their entitlement to taxpayer dollars on three critical fronts: unlicensed practice of medicine; deceptive privacy practices; and use of tax dollars with no public accountability or impact analysis,” McKenna said. “There’s a lot we can do to expose this harmful industry and challenge its access to public funding with impunity.”
Abortion pills are here to stay.
Elisa Wells
No matter what the Trump administration says or does, grassroots activists are pledging to ensure access to safe abortion medication.
“Abortion pills are here to stay,” said Elisa Wells, co-founder and co-director of Plan C, which provides information about how to access abortion pills in every state. “Community distribution networks and overseas providers will remain intact, and abortion pills will continue to come into the country.” (Wells adds that women can purchase abortion pills online at anytime for $25 to have on hand in case they need them.)
Through litigation, state policies and local action, feminists are ready to defend and advance the rights of women and girls over the next four years. “We’re getting ourselves battle ready,” declares Martin of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “We have a whole arsenal of tools, and we’re working closely with grassroots activists and other law and policy organizations.
“We all need to work together.”
This article appears in the Winter 2025 issue of Ms., which hits newsstands Feb. 12. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox.
