Antiabortion Extremism

Antiabortion extremists have been committing violence against abortion clinics, reproductive health centers and advocates, victimizing abortion seekers and providers since the 1970s. The violence escalated escalated following the passing of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court case which affirmed the constitutional right to abortion. Antiabortion violence can include violent acts that target proabortion lawmakers and politicians, healthcare providers and patients seeking abortions. These acts of violence continue to be a looming threat over abortion clinics, staff and patients.

RFK Jr. Ignores 100+ Studies to Push Abortion Pill Ban—This Is the Mifepristone Explainer You Need

PUBLISHED 11/4/2025 by

Apprehensive OB-GYNs across the country are alerting Americans that Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may withdraw abortion pill mifepristone from the market.

The threat follows the publication of a discredited study on mifepristone by a Project 2025 “think tank.” Medical organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have called the report “seriously flawed” and accused it of manipulating data. So why would RFK Jr. believe it?

Kennedy “is not a scientist and is entirely political. It’s hard to watch someone with such an important role in this country, who is in charge of some of the most vulnerable people in this country, have a complete lack of respect for the things we hold dear,” said Dr. Kristin Lyerly, a Wisconsin OB-GYN who also practices across the state border in rural Minnesota.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, plans to pour millions of dollars into House and Senate races in the 2026 midterms, in hopes of securing a “trifecta of pro-life administration, House and Senate.”

That’s a complete reversal from what voters have said they want: Since Roe was reversed in 2022, voters in every state with an abortion protection measure on its ballot have overwhelmingly passed it, enshrining the right to abortion into their state constitution—even in deep red states like Kansas, Kentucky and Ohio. 

The War on Women Report: Government Shutdown Continues; Another Woman Denied Emergency Abortion Care; FDA Approves Generic Mifepristone

PUBLISHED 11/3/2025 by and

MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide—the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.” We know an empowered female electorate is essential to democracy. That’s why day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report:
—Turning Point hosted an event at the University of Alabama advocating the death penalty as punishment for abortion patients.
—After being denied care for her ectopic pregnancy by an antiabortion OB-GYN, a 28-year-old woman in Illinois was forced to travel to multiple hospitals and healthcare centers before receiving life-saving care.
—Vocal abortion opponent Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced the Prohibiting Abortion and Transgender Procedures on the Exchanges Act, seeking to halt any healthcare plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) from funding abortions, even in states that preserve abortion access. 
—The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that judges can decline to marry same-sex couples if doing so goes against their religious beliefs.

… and more.

New California Shield Law Protects Abortion Pill Patients, Prescribers and Pharmacists

PUBLISHED 10/25/2025 by

California’s new shield law, AB 260, represents a bold reimagining of what it means to protect reproductive freedom in a post-Dobbs America. By allowing prescribers and pharmacies to omit identifying information from mifepristone labels—and by ensuring that confidential logs can’t be accessed by out-of-state authorities—the law does more than safeguard privacy. It dismantles the machinery of fear and surveillance that antiabortion extremists have built to track, intimidate and punish people for exercising bodily autonomy. In a nation where a single prescription can become evidence in a courtroom, California has declared: not here.

The legislation’s power lies in its refusal to accept intimidation as the cost of care. It shields patients, prescribers and pharmacists alike, and even mandates coverage of mifepristone regardless of the FDA’s shifting political winds. At its core, AB 260 is both a legal and moral statement—that access to abortion medication is not a privilege to be defended in court, but a right to be protected in law. For anyone navigating pregnancy in hostile states, California’s message carries weight and relief: You can seek care without fear that your name, your doctor’s name or your pharmacist’s name will be weaponized against you.

Trump’s IVF Announcement Fails Families—But Duckworth’s Right to IVF Act Could Deliver

PUBLISHED 10/23/2025 by

Last week’s White House announcement is the equivalent of “politely [asking] companies to add IVF coverage out of the goodness of their own hearts—with zero federal investment and no requirement for them to follow through,” says Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

There is, in fact, an alternative to the Trump plan: The Right to IVF Act, introduced by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, would require employer-sponsored health plans and public health insurance, including Medicaid and military plans, to cover treatments. The bill also addresses discrimination and forbids the restriction of access to IVF based on marital status or sexual orientation.

Republicans have voted it down twice.

The War on Women Report: New Texas Law Targets Abortion Pills; More Planned Parenthoods Close Amid Federal Funding Cuts

PUBLISHED 9/30/2025 by and

MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide—the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.” We know an empowered female electorate is essential to democracy. That’s why day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report:
—A judge in Missouri is currently deciding whether a proposed amendment that would ban abortion in the state’s constitution can appear on the 2026 ballot … even though Missourians voted just last fall to keep abortion legal in the state.
—The Trump administration announced in August that it would remove gender-affirming care from the health services offered to federal workers.
—Mississippi declared a public health emergency as the state’s infant mortality rate soars to a rate nearly double the national average.

… and more.

The Abortion Pill That Transformed Medicine Is Under Attack

PUBLISHED 9/26/2025 by | UPDATED 10/1/2025 at 12:13 P.M. PT

By approving mifepristone (the first pill in the two-step medication abortion regimen), the Food and Drug Administration gave people access to one of the safest, most effective and most studied medications in modern medicine.

Yet despite overwhelming evidence and broad public support, there are relentless attempts to restrict access to mifepristone. In 2023, a coalition led by extremist antiabortion groups filed a lawsuit seeking to roll back the FDA’s approval of the drug (which the Supreme Court ultimately dismissed). But the attacks have continued, fueled by a dangerous belief that science is optional.

We’ve seen it with COVID vaccines. We’ve seen it with birth control. We’ve seen it in lawsuits claiming Tylenol causes autism. We’ve even seen people question milk pasteurization and folic acid in prenatal vitamins—two of the most basic public health measures we have. The through line is the same: Ignore the evidence, stir up doubt and leave patients to bear the consequences.

Twenty-Five Years of Mifepristone: How Activists Brought the Abortion Pill to America and Changed Reproductive Health Forever

PUBLISHED 9/25/2025 by

At the urging of antiabortion advocates and politicians, and based on a flawed and biased report put out by an antiabortion group, the Trump administration announced the launch of a new review of mifepristone—despite 100 peer-reviewed scientific studies proving the safety and efficacy of these medications and safe use by over 7.5 million U.S. women.

On the 25th anniversary of FDA approval of mifepristone, reproductive rights supporters are celebrating the creative, determined and courageous advocates who brought this medication to market.

One organization that played a critical role in bringing mifepristone, known as RU-486, to the United States was the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF)—today the publisher of Ms.

The Antiabortion Movement’s Decades-Long Goal Achieved: Planned Parenthood Defunded

PUBLISHED 9/24/2025 by

Republicans have finally achieved a decades-long goal: defunding Planned Parenthood. In July, President Trump signed a spending bill that blocks Medicaid reimbursements and federal grants for nonprofit health centers that provide abortions—including Planned Parenthood—even though federal law already prohibits Medicaid from covering abortion. The result is that more than a million low-income and disabled patients who rely on Planned Parenthood for contraception, STI testing, and cancer screenings can no longer use their insurance there. Hundreds of clinics across the country are expected to close, and in many communities, there are no alternatives waiting to replace them.

What does this mean in practice?

It means people like Colleen—who discovered she had breast cancer because of an affordable visit to Planned Parenthood—will face new barriers to care.

It means patients who already struggle to cover basic expenses will be asked to pay out-of-pocket for lifesaving services.

And it means thousands of people living in rural or medically underserved areas may have no nearby provider at all.

The political fight over Planned Parenthood has always been framed as a battle about abortion, but the immediate impact is much broader: fewer clinics, fewer screenings, and fewer chances to catch disease before it’s too late.

‘We Can Do Hard Things’: Abortion Providers Fight Back Against Rising Violence [Part 4 of 4]

PUBLISHED 9/19/2025 by

Across the country, abortion providers are installing new security systems, building relationships with local law enforcement, and pushing states to pass their own protections in the absence of federal enforcement. “We really want states to use every tool available to them to pass laws to protect providers and patient communities, and they’re not yet,” says duVergne Gaines of the Feminist Majority Foundation’s National Clinic Access Project.

Still, advocates refuse to back down. For many, providing abortion is more than a profession—it’s a calling. As Ruth Richardson, who herself was named on the Minnesota assassin’s target list, put it: “We can do hard things. We’ve had to do hard things. This isn’t new.”

‘Dad Went to War’: The Radical Faith Behind the Minnesota Assassinations [Part 3 of 4]

PUBLISHED 9/18/2025 by

When Minnesota police arrested 57-year-old Vance Boelter after a two-day manhunt, they uncovered notebooks filled with names and addresses of elected officials and abortion providers. The suspect, who authorities say stockpiled 48 firearms, had already gunned down two people and left others gravely wounded. His writings and sermons hint at extremist religious currents, including ties to the New Apostolic Reformation.

“Their vision is violent at the outset,” says Frederick Clarkson, a longtime researcher of Christian extremism.

Advocates warn that rhetoric casting abortion as a holy war is not fringe—it is increasingly mainstream within the movement, fueling both deadly plots and everyday harassment of patients and providers.