01.05.2026 (PRESS RELEASE) — Nearly one year after President Trump’s second inauguration, the Center for Reproductive Rights has released new analysis documenting how the Trump administration has further decimated domestic abortion access during his first year back in office.  

The report details the most damaging actions taken by the administration, which:

1. Eliminated nationwide protections for abortion by: 
   • Withdrawing federal guidance that directed hospitals to perform life-saving abortions in emergency rooms, even though deadly pregnancy complications have increased as much as 50% in some states that banned abortion. 
   • Green-lighting violence against abortion clinics by pardoning violent anti-abortion protestors who were convicted of violating the FACE Act, which the President has said he will no longer enforce to protect abortion clinics. Violence against clinics has drastically increased since Roe v. Wade fell. 
   • Weakening data privacy rules protecting abortion patients.
2. Further restricted abortion access (even in states where it is legal) by:
   • Implementing a new policy that would prevent veterans on VA health insurance from having abortions even in cases of rape, incest, or severe health risks. 
   • Forcing clinics to close or reduce services nationwide by taking away their Medicaid funding. About 50 Planned Parenthood health centers have since closed and nearly 1,000 patients in Maine have lost their primary care. 
3. Sowed distrust in proven science to pave the way for more attacks, by:
   • Launching a politically motivated FDA investigation into the abortion pill, which could make it much harder to access.  
   • Falsely calling birth control an “abortifacient” to justify its plan to destroy millions of dollars in contraception headed for African countries. The destruction of these supplies could result in 1.5 million unintended pregnancies and thousands of preventable maternal deaths worldwide. 

“Too many people wrongly believe that President Trump is done attacking abortion access, and that overturning Roe v. Wade was his endgame,” said Nancy Northup, President & CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “But in his first year back in office, the Trump administration is not ‘leaving it to the states’ to decide abortion policy, but wielding federal power to go after abortion access even in states where abortion is legal. The result has already been a reduction of abortion clinics in the U.S. and the looming fear that the FDA will soon gut access to abortion pills, which have been a lifeline in post-Roe America. This report should be a wake-up call to Americans that the threat to further limit access to abortion throughout the nation is real and must be met with vigorous opposition.” 

What’s Next? 

Looking ahead, the report forecasts that the Trump administration will attempt to: punish abortion providers by misusing the long-defunct Comstock Act; impose new restrictions on the abortion pill; and defund more abortion clinics. These actions would deepen the national public health crisis already unfolding in reproductive health care.

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MEDIA CONTACT:  

Center for Reproductive Rights: [email protected]