This article was originally published in the December 2024 print edition.
In the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s recent victory and the potential threat of a national abortion ban that comes with it, students, professors and local organizations are concerned about ensuring ongoing access to reproductive healthcare in the coming years.
Tapestry Health, a reproductive healthcare clinic funded by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, is preparing for the possibility of heightened restrictions to abortion access. With an office located only a few minutes away from the Smith College campus, Tapestry is dedicated to providing accessible health services, including Mifepristone-based abortion pills.
“All reproductive care, including abortion, provides folks autonomy over their body and gives people the ability and freedom to make choices about their own body and how they want to live their lives. We think it is super important to provide that opportunity and we as an office feel very privileged to be able to do that every day,” said Tapestry Northampton manager Liliana Bonilla and counselors Sage Dube, Izzi Bledsoe and Lauren Duhr in an email.
However, there is concern that these services and rights could be disrupted after the 2024 election.
“I fully expect the Trump administration to create a federal abortion ban,” said Loretta Ross, a prominent activist for reproductive justice and Associate Professor of the Study of Women and Gender.
Despite Trump’s victory, a federal abortion ban would not necessarily be popular among Americans. “If you look at the polling, the majority of Republicans support abortion rights. In a way, it kind of makes sense, because you don’t want the government telling you about what you can do with your body,” said Carrie Baker, Professor of the Study of Women and Gender. “The fact of the matter is that the majority of Americans aren’t in favor of that, and that’s what these Democratic referendums are showing.”
The 2024 election saw the highest number of abortion-related state initiatives ever — eleven ballot questions across ten states. Of those ten states, seven approved measures that would protect abortion access, while referendums in Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota failed to pass, the first of such initiatives to fail since Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Gabi McGrath ’28, who is from Florida, said “This goes to show how separate [abortion protection] is from party politics, but so many people in power want this to happen. And in Florida there are a lot of elected officials who are not on the same page.”
Surgical abortion, the target of many state-wide bans, is not the only concern. According to Baker, Mifepristone, a drug to end pregnancy by inducing a miscarriage, commonly known as “Plan C,” would also be under threat of a federal ban.
“I think it’s definitely a risk that the FDA might restrict abortion pills [by…] revoking Mifepristone altogether,” she said.
“Right now we are the most concerned about Mifepristone getting sent back to the courts and becoming inaccessible for patients, especially since that is the only option that Tapestry offers. I know that we will be monitoring the news as best we can to prepare for anything that would make access harder for folks and will keep doing the work we can for as long as we can,” Bonilla, Dube, Bledsoe and Duhr said.
If the FDA were to restrict or revoke access, Massachusetts would face similar problems as the twenty-nine states, including Florida, that currently have bans or restrictions on abortion pills.
Despite national anti-abortion pushback, Massachusetts has been a leader in protecting abortion access over the past two years. An Executive Order issued in August of 2022, one month after the Dobbs decision, “provides a guarantee of reproductive rights that is entirely independent of any protection offered or implicit in the Constitution of the United States,” and the Massachusetts legislature enshrined abortion access into the state constitution shortly after.
Trump stated late into his campaign that he would not sign a federal abortion ban. However, previous statements and the anti-abortion rhetoric from people close to him, including vice president-elect JD Vance, seem to contradict Trump’s claim.
“It’s a really scary thing to feel — to not know if you will be protected,” said McGrath.
If a federal ban on abortion were to be enacted, as many predict, it would supersede state laws that protect abortion access, and clinics, like Tapestry Health, would be unable to provide Mifepristone pills.
This does not mean the fight for access will end. “I don’t think [activists] are going to give up — not just at the state level, but at the national level too,” said Baker.
Bonilla, Dube, Bledsoe and Duhr said that “[they] are constantly being updated about the latest abortion news in Massachusetts by the National Abortion Federation […] the best thing moving forward is just to learn as much as possible, keep updated with the news, fund local abortion funds and clinics, build community, and keep the fight for abortion and reproductive access alive!”
Ross agrees. “We have truth, time, evidence and history on our side. I’m not in charge of the timeline, but I think our victory is certain,” she said.
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