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.

The War on Children

PUBLISHED 9/5/2025 by

American children die at stunning rates because of policy choices, and mostly because of policy choices made by the “pro-life” right.

The Republican Party has long claimed the mantle of defending life. The new Republican Party has promised to make America healthy again. Instead, they’re leaving kids sick and dead.

This is a war on children. It is also a war on women. The “women and children” framing can feel incredibly condescending, but the truth is that women’s and children’s lives and wellbeing are indelibly intertwined. Women make children with our bodies; if we are not well, they are not well. Women still do most of the work of raising and nurturing children; if they are not well, we are not well. This does not apply to every single woman on earth. But it applies to women as a class, and to children as a class.

Texas Loves Its Bounty Hunters and Hates Its Women

PUBLISHED 9/5/2025 by

Over Labor Day weekend, Texas quietly rolled out yet another measure to restrict reproductive freedom. Senate Bill 33, which took effect Monday, bans municipal funding for abortion support—stripping cities like Austin and San Antonio of the ability to allocate local dollars to abortion funds, even for residents forced to travel out of state for care. The law denies “millions of Texans the opportunity” for their communities to support safe, legal abortion access, according to Jane’s Due Process, a nonprofit serving young people navigating the state’s bans.

It’s a playbook Texas has perfected. Four years ago, the state’s SB 8 created the infamous “bounty hunter” model, empowering private citizens to sue anyone who helps a person get an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy and rewarding them with $10,000. That law went into effect while Roe v. Wade was still technically the law of the land, an early harbinger of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. Since then, Texas has become the national laboratory for copycat measures that push the boundaries of authoritarian control—from targeting trans people to censoring librarians.

The toll is devastating. Maternal deaths and infant mortality are on the rise; patients risk sepsis because doctors fear prosecution; and the cost of accessing abortion care has skyrocketed. Advocates like Jane’s Due Process warn that these laws are not just about abortion—they are about consolidating state power, silencing local communities and testing the limits of democracy itself. “This is another attack on democracy in an antiabortion disguise,” said Lucie Arvallo, the group’s executive director.

Digital Deception: Beware the Rise of Fake Telehealth Abortion Clinics

PUBLISHED 9/4/2025 by

For decades, antiabortion crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) have preyed on vulnerable women, planting themselves next to abortion clinics to misdirect and confuse women seeking abortion care. Now, as telehealth abortion is becoming a more common way to access abortion care—accounting for one in four abortions in 2024—the CPC industry is moving to sabotage this vital option, especially for women living in states with abortion bans and restrictions. The two-billion-dollar CPC industry is now developing telehealth strategies to mislead women seeking telehealth abortion and divert them away from legitimate providers.

Many CPC websites feature pop-up chats purportedly offering consultations with nurses. What’s new today is that more and more CPCs are marketing themselves as telehealth providers, claiming to offer appointments with medical professionals.

“CPCs target the most vulnerable—young people, uninsured and underinsured people, women of color and immigrants—the very people with the fewest options and greatest barriers to abortion and all reproductive healthcare,” said McKenna. “As our country faces worsening maternity care deserts, provider shortages and devastating cuts to the reproductive healthcare safety net, pregnant women and teens need honest, evidence-based care more than ever, not ideologically driven pseudo-health care.” 

How Texas Abortion Restrictions Are Driving Doctors Away: ‘By Following the Law, I Was Doing the Wrong Thing Medically’

PUBLISHED 9/2/2025 by

Texas’ abortion bans have driven hundreds of physicians to leave the state, retire early, or avoid practicing and training there altogether. Dr. Lou Rubino is one of many doctors forced out, unable to provide not only abortion care but also life-saving emergency treatment.

“I remember very clearly the moment I knew I was done. I could no longer practice as a women’s healthcare doctor in Texas.

“I had a patient, probably 18 or 19 years old. I was doing an ultrasound, and she told me she needed an abortion for her safety. She said, ‘I’m too young. I don’t feel safe with my partner. I’m scared. I need an abortion.’

“When a patient tells me they feel unsafe with a partner, I take that very seriously. Pregnant people are at high risk of harm from abusive partners. It’s a dangerous time. She knew what she needed, and I knew it was wrong for me to say no. … I asked myself: Am I the kind of doctor who does the wrong thing? I’m not. And Texas couldn’t force me to be.

“Not long after, my husband and I moved to Virginia, where I now practice.”

In the Fall Issue of Ms. Magazine: Abortion’s Foes Turn Deadly

PUBLISHED 8/19/2025 by | UPDATED 9/2/2025 at 2:55 P.M. PT

The work of advocating for abortion rights has always been dangerous. But under the second Trump administration, which has enabled antiabortion lawmakers and vigilantes through policies and rhetoric, that danger has escalated dramatically, as state Rep. Melissa Hortman’s murder proves.

In our Fall issue, we delve into the motivations behind the shootings, and talk to the people who are trying to prevent further violence.

Here’s what else you’ll find in the Fall issue:

—a deep dive into how the Trump administration’s immigration policies are impacting families across the country—and advocates’ visions for a more just future.
—a visit to Syria’s “village of women,” which offers Kurdish women a refuge—one they’ll fight to protect.
—investigating how the Medicaid and SNAP cuts in the Republican budget bill will impact women and children.

Trump’s Republican Trifecta Sets Up Massive Transfer of Tax Dollars from Reproductive Health Clinics to Unregulated Crisis Pregnancy Clinics

PUBLISHED 8/18/2025 by | UPDATED 8/26/2025 at 11:53 A.M. PT

The Trump administration, 119th Congress and John Roberts-led Supreme Court are redirecting federal tax dollars from Planned Parenthood and Title X to bankroll the $2 billion unregulated pregnancy clinic industry—crisis pregnancy centers—positioning it to replace reproductive health clinics nationwide.

The antiabortion industry has long aimed to “replace” Planned Parenthood, and since Roe‘s fall, so-called pro-life operatives claim these clinics fill gaps in prenatal and postpartum care and address maternal and infant mortality. These claims are false. Their mission—to block abortion—directly conflicts with providing actual, lifesaving healthcare.

Project 2025 seeks to disqualify Planned Parenthood from Medicaid and end “religious discrimination in grant selections”—code for funneling federal dollars to crisis pregnancy centers.

“Let’s call this what it is: a calculated, coordinated attack on poor women and families,” says Debra Rosen, executive director of Reproductive Health and Freedom Watch. Low-income women are being denied care at real health centers and funneled into ideological storefronts. The hypocrisy is breathtaking, and the consequences will be deadly—a manufactured, avoidable public health crisis.

A Trump Cabinet Member Endorsed a Pastor Who Wants the 19th Amendment Repealed, and the Danger Is Growing

PUBLISHED 8/13/2025 by

Once a fringe warning, the threat to women’s right to vote is now out in the open—and in the halls of power.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reposted a video on Aug. 7 with the endorsement “All of Christ for All of Life,” in which a far-right conservative pastor, Doug Wilson, co-founder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), argued that women should not have the right to vote.

As Wilson told the Associated Press, “He was, in effect, reposting it and saying, ‘Amen,’ at some level.”

But a deeper dive into CREC reveals troubling gender politics where women cannot hold church leadership positions and married women are expected to submit to their husbands.

‘Giving Women a Chance to Choose When the World Didn’t’: Massachusetts Doctors Provide Telehealth Abortion in States with Bans

PUBLISHED 7/25/2025 by

As abortion bans have swept the country, Massachusetts doctors are stepping up by providing thousands with lifesaving telehealth abortion care, regardless of their ability to pay. 

On July 12, reproductive health advocates and local office holders filled the common room of a Northampton, Mass., co-housing community to celebrate and support the vital work of The Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project (The MAP). Based in Cambridge, the MAP is one of a handful of medical practices in the U.S. providing telehealth abortion care to patients in states with abortion bans or severe restrictions. Each month, MAP provides abortion pills to 2500 patients—nearly a third from Texas—using an asynchronous telemedicine platform built to provide prompt, private and convenient abortion care that is affordable to all.

“I want to thank The MAP from the depths of my soul,” one patient said. “You have saved me.”

Biotech CEOs to FDA: Don’t Let Politics Override Science on Abortion Pill

PUBLISHED 7/10/2025 by

Fifty-three biotechnology industry leaders and investors representing dozens of companies and organizations issued a letter late last month advising the U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Follow the science on mifepristone, not political ideology.

The Biotech CEO Sisterhood initiated the letter, with Grace Colón as lead author and dozens of senior biotechnology leaders signed on in support. “We are urging the agency and the department to continue to follow the science,” said Colón, who warned that political interference in drug regulation undermines both public trust and the FDA’s authority.

The Minnesota Shooting Wasn’t Random—It Was a Predictable Resurgence of Violence

PUBLISHED 7/9/2025 by and

Minnesota experienced an act of devastating political violence last month: Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, were killed in their home. State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette are recovering from life-saving surgeries after shielding their adult daughter from the gunman.

In recent years, we’ve seen attacks escalate against elected officials across the political spectrum. However, we must recognize that Hortman, Hoffman and the other targets on the gunman’s list are uniquely vulnerable because of the way that we treat abortion: We isolate abortion from mainstream care, in law and practice; and we exclude it from insurance coverage, hospital systems and routine medical training.

By treating abortion as unsafe and morally suspect, rather than as legitimate medicine, we further normalize hostility towards it, its providers, and the policymakers who uphold access to it.