We believe that everyone should have autonomy over their own body and that all communities should have access to reproductive healthcare – including abortion – that is affirming, affordable, and safe. The reproductive justice movement reminds us that abortion access is not about individual choice. It is about dismantling all systems of power that deny marginalized communities access to self-determination, bodily autonomy and safety. We know that when we fight for abortion access, we are fighting against the very same forces who have subjected immigrants to forced sterilization in detention centers or separated Black and brown families through violent family policing policies nationwide under the guise of “child welfare.” The struggles for bodily autonomy, the abolition of prisons and policing, and the right to parent or not to parent are all connected.

The increased threats to abortion access nationwide posed by the incoming Trump administration are the culmination of decades of anti-choice organizing by the right. Trump's second term could mean a nationwide ban on abortion, the defunding of organizations that facilitate access to abortion care, limits on states' ability to support people traveling out of state for care, legalizing discrimination targeting people who have received abortion care, severely restricted access to abortion pills – including by mail – and much more. Such attacks have been building for decades as the right has used dangerous rhetoric to create a hyperfocus on abortion in order to divide communities who might otherwise work together to unseat right-wing power. Following the right’s success in overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, 41 states have laws that fully or partially ban or restrict access to abortion care, including by endangering the lives of pregnant and birthing people. This includes policies that target abortion providers, both within and outside clinic settings, with the threat of jail time or burdensome legal requirements, or that subject abortion seekers to coercive propaganda or unwanted parental involvement. These policies are part of the right’s bigger plan to carry out a massive assault on bodily autonomy through laws, policies and fear.

The fight for free, unrestricted access to abortion at the federal level – far above and beyond what Roe provided – is still needed. At the same time, as Trump's second term and a conservative Supreme Court makes this fight that much harder, we will continue to take abortion care matters into our own hands at the local level using legal, policy and grassroots strategies. Across the country, as people continue to seek out safe access to care in the face of new assaults, local communities will likely need to rely on the resources that are already in place via a deep network of abortion funds, harm reduction resources, storytelling collectives, and networks to facilitate and de-stigmatize access to abortion care for anyone, anywhere (at home, at a clinic, self-managed, by mail, etc.). Communities have already been organizing to pass policies to protect abortion access in their state laws/constitution, protect abortion seekers and providers from criminalization and surveillance, and organize ballot measures to overturn existing bans. The fight to pass state and local "shield laws" will only become that much more needed.