On the Would-be 53rd Anniversary of Roe, Republicans & Anti-Abortion Extremists Continue to Push for a National Abortion Ban
The deadly Dobbs decision was just the start — anti-abortion extremists are working overtime to ban abortion nationwide
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Free & Just is marking the would-be 53rd anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade, which protected the legal right to abortion care across the country. In 2022, the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturned these protections, putting millions of women's lives at risk. The anniversary comes one week after ProPublica reported on the preventable death of Ciji Graham, a mother from North Carolina who died waiting for care while pregnant. Graham’s death is the seventh in the U.S. attributed to abortion bans in recent years.
Threats to abortion care are at an all time high, and the Trump administration is using every lever at their disposal to ban abortion nationwide — no matter how many lives are lost. From weaponizing federal agencies to roll back access to medication abortion, which could leave as many as 64.5 million people across the country without access to care, to sneaking new national abortion restrictions into critical health care legislation – even as costs skyrocket, and undermining federal protections for lifesaving care, the consequences of attacks on reproductive freedom are deadly.
Veronica Ingham, Managing Director of Free & Just, released the following statement commemorating the anniversary of Roe v. Wade:
“For generations, Roe v. Wade gave patients legal protection to make decisions about their bodies and their futures. Today, instead of building on these fundamental protections, we are mourning the lives lost to abortion bans after the deadly Dobbs decision. Roe was never enough – especially for people already marginalized by racism, poverty, and geography – but it provided an important legal foundation that made further progress possible. Now, we remain committed to expanding reproductive freedom, and will continue to tell the stories of people affected by the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back our rights.”
BACKGROUND
Since the deadly Dobbs decision, states across the country have enacted trigger bans that criminalize receiving or providing abortion care and it has never been more dangerous for patients to be pregnant in America. The devastating consequences of Roe being overturned can be felt to this day as women are dying in states across the country and attacks on abortion care persist nationwide at the local and federal levels.
Under pressure from extremist lawmakers, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary opened an “investigation” into mifepristone in 2025: While the FDA is allegedly “slow-walking” the review, the reality is that new restrictions on mifepristone may be on the horizon, jeopardizing care for 64.5 million people across the country.
In late 2025, as Congressional Republicans scrambled to address the health care crisis they created, some lawmakers embraced radical groups like Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America seeking to impose new restrictions on abortion care: Radical lawmakers like Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) are so emboldened right now, that they are launching new anti-abortion groups designed to oppose abortion ballot initiatives in states across the country. Extremists will continue to exploit our country’s health care crisis and seek opportunities to impose sweeping new abortion restrictions no matter the cost.
Legal challenges to medication abortion also persist: Anti-abortion extremists in Texas and Florida filed a new lawsuit in December 2025 challenging the FDA’s original approval of mifepristone and the subsequent changes that have been made to make the safe and effective medicine more accessible. The new lawsuit mirrors a prior Supreme Court mifepristone case that was dismissed on standing but could return to SCOTUS through this case.
Roughly half of Trump’s judicial nominees this term have revealed anti-abortion views, been associated with anti-abortion groups or defended abortion restrictions, with at least eight having argued in favor of abortion restrictions or against expanded abortion access: This past summer’s confirmations of anti-abortion extremists including Joshua Divine and Whitney Hermandorfer to critical judgeships are just the tip of the iceberg. It remains to be seen how these dangerous judges will continue to chip away at reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy nationwide.
Bottomline: Since the deadly Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, Trump and his allies are using every lever at their disposal to dismantle any fragment of reproductive freedom left in this country until abortion is banned nationwide.
If you are interested in connecting with patients, providers, or advocates about attacks on lifesaving emergency care at the local and federal level, please contact Kelly Rimar (kelly@freeandjust.us).
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