Memorandum: On Anniversary of Dobbs

To Interested Parties
FROM: Rosemary Boeglin, DNC Communications Director
DATE: Monday, June 24, 2024
RE: On Anniversary of Dobbs, Democrats are Mobilizing to Stop Trump’s National Abortion Ban

It’s been nearly two years since Donald Trump’s hand-picked Supreme Court justices cast the deciding votes to overturn Roe v. Wade, unleashing an all-out assault on women’s reproductive freedoms. With Trump’s backing, MAGA Republicans in the states have escalated anti-choice attacks ever since, with devastating consequences to Americans’ lives, health and futures – from abortion bans without exceptions for rape and incest and bounty hunter laws to attempts to restrict access to contraception and IVF.

Let’s be clear: Donald Trump owns every single abortion ban and policy that’s ripped away essential reproductive health care from women across the country.

Because of Trump, more than 1 in 3 women of reproductive age in America now live under an abortion ban. Because of Trump, we’ve seen story after story of women being turned away from emergency rooms and denied reproductive care critical to their health and lives.

After repeatedly bragging about overturning Roe, Trump said “it's a beautiful thing to watch” states enact extreme abortion restrictions. Trump thinks it’s "beautiful" that a 13-year-old rape victim was forced to carry a pregnancy under Mississippi’s ban; that a young woman in Texas almost died because doctors were afraid to treat her; and that a Florida woman was turned away from the ER and lost roughly half her blood in a single day after experiencing a miscarriage.

These bans are a preview of the national abortion ban that’s coming if Trump is elected: Trump promised to be “leading the charge” in banning abortion nationwide, said there should be “punishment” for women who have an abortion, and his allies have a comprehensive strategy to restrict reproductive health care access in all 50 states with or without the help of Congress or the courts.

Democrats are working around the clock to ensure that all women – living across diverse communities and suburban and rural divides – know exactly what’s at stake if Trump gets his national abortion ban. This memo outlines the dire consequences since the fall of Roe, how cruel state bans offer a preview of what’s to come if Donald Trump wins this election, and how Democrats are making clear to voters that the MAGA assaults on our reproductive freedoms are on the ballot this November.

The Current Crisis

In the last two years, Donald Trump’s assaults on reproductive freedoms have caused pain and suffering for women across the country and left health providers reeling. Attacks on reproductive freedoms in states with extreme MAGA majorities have led to an influx of out-of-state patients to states with abortion protections still on the books — while health providers in red states have considered fleeing to continue their practice without fear of jail time.

Because of Trump:

Women must travel up to 11.5 hours round trip for the reproductive care that they deserve.
In Florida: A woman had to carry her pregnancy to term knowing that there was no chance of survival.
In Idaho: More than 50 obstetricians have stopped practicing since the state implemented a near total abortion ban.
In Mississippi: A teenage rape victim had to travel 500 miles to get an abortion.
In Ohio: A 10-year old rape victim was forced to leave the state to receive an abortion.
In Texas: A 25-year-old college senior faced “extreme danger” of dying because, under Texas law, doctors hesitated to treat her until her fallopian tube ruptured;
Due to the state’s extreme abortion ban, Texan Amanda Zurawski nearly died when her doctors were unable to provide her the abortion care she needed until she developed a severe and life-threatening case of sepsis.
In Virginia: Extreme abortion bans in Southern states like Florida place strain on Virginia clinics, as Floridians and other out-of-state patients flee to the only state in the South where they can get the care they need.
In Washington: Despite reproductive protections in the state, health care clinics struggle to meet the demands of out-of-state patients seeking refuge from their states’ extreme abortion bans.

Now, women in 21 states are living under an extreme abortion ban, some without exceptions for rape or incest. Some states have pushed even further, threatening or restricting access to other forms of reproductive health care such as IVF and contraception.

Moreover, abortion bans – like those currently enacted in red states and like the ban Trump wants to take nationwide – disproportionately impact women of color.

Nationwide, restrictive abortion bans are linked to higher rates of maternal and infant mortality, particularly for women of color. Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy than their white counterparts.
More than half of Black women in the U.S. reside in states with abortion bans.
Latinas also disproportionately suffer under the impacts of Trump’s extreme abortion bans – especially Latinas residing in Texas, Florida, and Arizona.
Statewide abortion bans impose additional burdensome costs on women, forcing some to pay to travel far distances to receive abortion care. An estimated one-third of Americans do not have savings to cover emergency expenses, with 57% of Hispanic women and 58% of Black women stating they could not afford an expense tantamount to the median cost of an abortion.
Despite overwhelming support for abortion care, Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women also face obstacles to accessing reproductive health care. Asian Americans are overrepresented in low-wage jobs, and a majority of Asian Americans speak a language other than English at home – creating economic barriers to health care access, as well as challenges in accessing culturally competent care.
More than a quarter of Asian American and Pacific Islander women between the ages of 15-49 live in the 26 states that have banned or where extreme Republicans are trying to ban abortion.

Ever since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, attacks on a number of women’s reproductive freedoms — not just abortion — have escalated. Trump’s MAGA Republican minions in the states are hellbent on ripping away access to IVF, contraception, medication abortion, and more.

An Alabama’s Supreme Court ruling determined that frozen embryos are children.
In Texas, similar attacks on IVF have surfaced due to the state’s extreme abortion ban.
Several Republican state parties, like North Carolina, Kansas, Missouri, and Idaho, support policies in their state party platform that could threaten access to IVF.
In total, 19 states have some type of fetal personhood law on the books.

Additionally, hypocrisy knows no bounds for MAGA Republicans in Congress, who’ve scrambled to express their supposed support for IVF despite refusing to protect access to it.
- Amid recent attacks against IVF access in the states, Republican senators blocked a Democrat-led bill that would enshrine IVF protections for women nationwide.
- This year, the House Republican Study Committee, which represents nearly 80% of House Republicans, backed the Life at Conception Act, which would enact a national abortion ban and threaten access to IVF nationwide.

Trump’s MAGA Project 2025

The horrifying stories of the dangerous consequences women have faced under extreme abortion bans are only a preview of what’s to come if Donald Trump is reelected. Trump will push for a law that would ban abortion nationwide.

Don’t believe us? Take Trump’s own words for it.

Here’s some of the most egregious things Trump has said about ripping away reproductive freedoms, and the dangerous plans he has for women’s reproductive health care if he retakes power:

On multiple occasions, he’s said he wants to sign a national abortion ban — and let’s not forget he backed a national ban when he was in office.
Trump continues to brag about his unique role in overturning Roe v. Wade, opening the door for all kinds of anti-choice extremism across the country.
In fact, he’s called dangerous abortion bans that have threatened the lives of women — and even girls — “beautiful.”
He endorsed allowing states to prosecute and punish women who get an abortion.
And here’s what Trump’s extremist allies plan through their MAGA Project 2025, a dangerous governing agenda for Trump’s second term:
- Threatening access to IVF.
- Rescinding approval of abortion pills at the FDA.
- Attacking contraception access.
- Using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to increase “abortion surveillance” and data collection.
- Rescinding a Department of Defense policy to “prohibit abortion travel funding.”
- Undermining a law that is currently protecting pregnant women with life-threatening conditions.
- Punishing states that require health insurance plans to cover abortion.
- Banning the use of fetal stem cells in medical research for diseases such as cancer.
- Stopping federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

With Reproductive Freedom on the Ballot, Democrats are Fighting Back Against Trump and MAGA Extremists' Attempts to Undermine Our Rights

Since Roe was overturned, Democrats have been fighting back and holding Trump and MAGA Republicans accountable for their extremism. Every day through Election Day and beyond, we will make the stark choice clear to voters: President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Democrats are the only ones fighting to protect women’s fundamental reproductive freedoms.

The DNC is investing a baseline of $8.3 million this year across every state party in the country, a 25% increase since 2020 to ensure voters know about Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans’ assault on reproductive rights.
- When it comes to engaging key voters on reproductive rights, Democrats have a winning record: the DNC has made targeted investments to help bolster key races that have protected abortion rights everywhere from Virginia to Ohio to Kentucky.
  - Thanks to Democrats in the state House and Senate, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s attempt to enact an extreme abortion ban was defeated. The DNC invested $1.5 million to support Democratic candidates in Virginia in 2023.
  - Ohioans took to the ballot box to protect abortion rights in 2023, voting for a state constitutional amendment to codify abortion access. The DNC has increased financial support to the Ohio Democratic Party by 25% since 2020.
  - Kentuckians voted to reelect Democratic Governor Andy Beshear, who ran on a platform centered around abortion rights in the deeply-red commonwealth. The DNC invested over $3 million to support Governor Andy Beshear’s reelection campaign and Democrats up and down the ballot.
Not only are we targeting swing states, we are building infrastructure in red states to fight back against these bans — including the Red State Fund, which builds programs in traditionally Republican states. So far in the 2023-24 cycle, the DNC has already invested more than $4.5 million to the Red State Fund alone.

Most importantly, the DNC is committed to ensuring that every woman in the states that will decide this election understand what a second term of Donald Trump would mean. Donald Trump and Republicans will continue to chip away at rights. President Biden and Democrats up and down the ballot will continue to protect and expand our fundamental freedoms. The only way to restore and expand women’s reproductive freedoms is to reelect President Biden and Vice President Harris, and by electing Democrats up and down the ballot.

As we mark the second anniversary of Dobbs, our work to mobilize voters continues today and lasts through November.