Across the country, clinics and organizations that offer reproductive and health care services are preparing for a second Donald Trump presidency, emboldened by a Republican sweep of both chambers of Congress.
The next steps of President-elect Trump’s administration steps have yet to be seen or discussed, but experts nationwide warn that abortion access could be at risk, including in the D.C. area, where the majority of voters cast their ballots for Vice President Kamala Harris. The Harris campaign had made restoring and protecting abortion access a central theme of its election bid.
Laura Meyers, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, said her organization is ready for anything that will come their way.
“Your health care should never depend on your ZIP code. It shouldn’t depend on a legislature who has decided to enact an extreme agenda so that you cannot access lifesaving care,” Meyers told WTOP.
On Nov. 5, seven states approved measures to protect or expand abortion rights. In Maryland, voters approved a constitutional amendment to enshrine abortion in the state’s constitution, making it more difficult for lawmakers in the future to limit or challenge it.
Abortion is also legal in neighboring Virginia, although it is banned after 27 weeks. Virginia is the only state in the South that has not made a change to its abortion policy after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Since the 2022 landmark ruling was overturned, 12 states have moved to make abortion completely illegal, with a handful of other states adopting restrictive six-week bans with exceptions only in the case of rape or incest.
A 2023 study on abortion care by the Guttmacher Institute found that across the country, nearly one in five abortion patients traveled out of state for the procedure in the first six months of that year — double the number of patients from a comparable period in 2020. In the D.C. area, the ripple effects have been even more pronounced.
“Our outside-the-DMV patients have quadrupled since May 1 (2024), when Florida’s draconian ban went into effect,” Meyers told WTOP. “So it has very significant implications for the number of people that need to come to our area.”
Catholic anti-abortion rights groups: ‘Work is only just beginning”
Catholic leaders and anti-abortion groups “were working tirelessly, devoting so much energy, so much resources, so much teaching … to the local level and the state level to protect life,” in the 10 states that voted on abortion this election cycle, Bishop Michael Burbidge, told Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN).
The anti-abortion movement had a losing record on those ballot measures.
“We will never be able financially to keep up with those who are fighting to legalize abortion in their states,” Burbidge, who heads the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, said.
He said the bishops have learned to get out early during election cycles with their messaging on the “extreme positions” taken by abortion rights supporters.
“This is ongoing,” he said. “We celebrated the tremendous victory over Roe v. Wade, but we knew soon thereafter the work is only just beginning.”
Using the past as a ‘blueprint’
Meyers explained that her organization would be looking to Trump’s 2016 presidency as a “blueprint around what we can expect.” During that time, in 2019, Trump imposed and expanded a “domestic gag rule” that attempted to dissolve federal Title X funding to family planning organizations that perform or refer abortion services, including Planned Parenthood.
“Because Maryland as a state controls its budget, unlike the District of Columbia, they were able to put in place other funding to make up for the (loss of) federal funding,” Meyers said. “Maryland, instead, used their own locally-raised tax dollars to fund Planned Parenthood health centers in place of the federal Title X funds.”
The District of Columbia does not receive federal funding, but Meyers highlighted the “champions” in the D.C. Mayor’s Office and the council, who are working to put protections in place.
“(They) are working very hard to put protections in place so that people can access health care in the District of Columbia,” she added. “We’re going to provide care and advocate, regardless of what this new administration throws our way.”
Abortion was recognized by polls nationwide as a top concern of voters — especially for female voters, second only to the economy — and the Harris-Walz campaign often spotlighted women who had experienced medical complications from a lack of reproductive care.
“As we’ve seen over the last several months, women (are) dying as a result of not being able to get health care where they live. I want you to think about … what that means to have a family member who has an urgent medical issue and cannot get care because politicians, and not doctors, have determined what care they can or cannot get,” Meyers said.
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