Elon Musk

Ultimately, Musk and DOGE use these financial decisions and budgetary tools to enact policy change, targeting the funding and workforce of agencies viewed as threats to President Trump’s efforts to attack and undermine reproductive rights both in the U.S. and abroad. For example, an official at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told The New York Times that the agency’s “mission has been completely demolished” by DOGE. For decades under presidents from both parties,  HHS has overseen and funded domestic reproductive health programs, including Medicaid, the largest public payer of family planning and maternal health care; the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates medication abortion; and the Title X program, the only federal program solely dedicated to family planning and related health services.

• Musk routinely uses extreme rhetoric about abortion, equating this essential health care to “murder” and “genocide.”
• Musk frequently uses his highly visible media profile and social media platform to spread misinformation about hormonal birth control.
• Musk played a key role in dissolving the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), effectively ending international programs promoting reproductive and maternal health and putting the health and rights of people around the world at risk.

Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, rebranding the company as “X” the following year. He has used this platform and other media outlets to share extreme rhetoric about abortion and hormonal birth control including:

• Multiple X posts on alleged negative impacts of hormonal birth control use; for example, citing the debunked myth that birth control “is a significant cause of depression and increases suicide risk,” and that it is “destructive to civilization.” 
• Multiple posts equating abortion to “genocide” and “murder.”

Musk and DOGE were instrumental in dismantling USAID, a key institution that promoted and provided vital resources for sexual and reproductive healthcare worldwide.

• Musk chronicled these efforts on X including:
  • Multiple posts referring to USAID as an “evil” “viper’s nest” and “criminal organization” that needed to “die.” Andrew Natsios, who ran USAID under President George W. Bush, called these statements “a bold-faced lie.”
  • A post celebrating “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” In reality, Musk’s efforts effectively ended global family planning, HIV prevention and treatment, and maternal health programs. According to an analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, if no contraceptive care is provided by USAID in 2025, that will lead to about 4.2 million unintended pregnancies and over 8,000 deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth complications. 
• Musk has also falsely asserted that USAID funded abortion services.
• DOGE similarly orchestrated mass layoffs designed to result in the termination of 10,000 federal health agency employees throughout HHS. This includes entire teams focused on Assisted Reproductive Technology (like IVF) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on drug evaluation and research at the FDA, and on diversity, civil rights, and minority health at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.   

• Musk was the founder and sole funder of RBG PAC, a super PAC formed less a month before the 2024 election, contributing $20.5 million to advertising that falsely claimed President Trump’s stance on abortion is similar to that of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
• Musk and groups linked to him have reportedly spent at least $20 million in support of Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel, helping to make the April 1, 2025, election the most expensive state judge race ever.
  • Schimel is an anti-abortion county judge and former state attorney general who claims that Wisconsin’s 1849 law that was used to block abortion care in the state for over a year after the Dobbs decision is still valid. The current state attorney general has sued the Speaker and Majority Leader of the Wisconsin Legislature seeking a declaratory judgment that this pre-Roe ban is unenforceable.