Sign in favour of proposition 139, the right to abortion initiative, are displayed at the entrance room of the Tucson HQ of Arizona List, an association made to empower and elect progressive pro-choice Democratic women leaders, in Tucson, Arizona, October 16, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

A second Donald Trump presidency could amplify efforts by conservative politicians to restrict abortion access across the United States.

Here’s a closer look at the legal tools available to a future administration intent on limiting abortion access and how abortion rights defenders are preparing to fight back.

Federal actions

For advocates of abortion rights, the nightmare scenario is a Republican-controlled Congress enacting sweeping national restrictions or an outright ban.

Vice President Kamala Harris has championed a federal law protecting abortion, but that would require Democratic control of the House, Senate, and presidency.

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If Mr. Trump wins but Republicans do not control Congress, he could still “do a lot of damage to abortion access” through federal actions and judicial appointments, American University law professor Lewis Grossman told AFP.

The Republican former president’s Supreme Court picks were pivotal in dismantling decades of legal precedent protecting the national right to abortion.

While Mr. Trump has at times hinted at moderation during the 2024 campaign -even suggesting he might veto any anti-abortion law that lands on his desk -some fear Project 2025 as the real battle plan.

Published by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation, the document offers a roadmap for harsher executive branch restrictions, developed with input from former Trump officials. Trump has publicly distanced himself from the document.

New conditions on abortion pills

Experts predict abortion pills could be Trump’s first target.

Mifepristone, which prevents pregnancy progression, and misoprostol, which empties the uterus, accounted for nearly two-thirds of U.S. abortions last year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Medical abortion, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration since 2000, used to require in-clinic visits. However, during Covid-19, telehealth briefly opened access by mail, a policy that Joe Biden’s government made permanent in 2021.

A Trump administration might reinstate in-person requirements or roll back other eased regulations, said George Washington University law professor Sonia Suter – a simpler step than rescinding approval, though that is also possible.

Angie Jean-Marie of Plan C, a nonprofit focused on abortion access, said that if access to mifepristone is restricted, providers may rely on misoprostol alone, a potential workaround since it’s already approved for various medical uses and subject to fewer regulations.

If Ms. Harris wins, Jean-Marie says advocates would push for her to make the pills available without a prescription.

Reviving obscenity law

Anti-abortion activists are eyeing the Comstock Act, a 19th-century law prohibiting the mailing of “obscene” materials, including items for “producing abortion.”

The US Justice Department under Biden currently interprets this law as inapplicable to approved abortion pills.

But Suter told AFP that a broad interpretation could apply that to “anything used to produce an abortion — materials for surgical abortions – which could effectively create a national ban.”

This could disrupt the supply chain in clinics and hospitals across states where abortion is currently legal — or where it may soon be permitted through state-level referendums on November 5.

Conservative lawyer and scholar Josh Craddock told AFP : “There is nothing nefarious or ‘backdoor’ about enforcing the laws that Congress has enacted and repeatedly reaffirmed. “

Judicial appointments and more

A Trump administration could also seek to undo the stringent patient privacy protections put in place by Mr. Biden for women seeking abortions out-of-state, said Suter, paving the way for possible prosecutions when they return home.

Although the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has already overturned Roe v Wade, experts say the power to appoint federal judges remains paramount.

Courts may soon be called to decide the fate of state laws that make it harder for women to access care in more abortion-friendly states, Grossman explained.

Jean-Marie emphasized that pro-abortion groups aren’t sitting idle.

“If Trump wins, there’s much to prepare in those weeks before inauguration,” she said, noting strategies like pill stockpiling, overseas sourcing and community support networks.

Pro-abortion organizations also are launching the “You Have Options” campaign to make sure women have access to critical resources, no matter who wins on November 5.

Los Angeles:

Arizona’s supreme court has ruled that a fetus can be described as an “unborn human being” on ballots when voters decide this November whether to make abortion a constitutional right.

Abortion has become a dominant political issue across the United States in this presidential election year, especially in key swing states like Arizona, where President Joe Biden defeated Republican Donald Trump by just 10,000 votes in 2020.

The Arizona ballot initiative would allow access to abortions for pregnancies up to 24 weeks after conception, a significant increase from the state’s current 15-week limit.

It would also carve out exceptions to “protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual,” which critics argue could become a legal loophole to allow abortions after fetal viability.

The state’s supreme court ruled on Wednesday that language drafted by a Republican-majority legislative council calling fetuses and embryos “unborn human beings” in fact “substantially complies” with impartiality requirements, a filing showed.

The Arizona secretary of state estimated a record 577,971 valid signatures were submitted to add the initiative to the state’s ballot, far surpassing the required threshold of 383,923 signatures.

The conservative-dominated US Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to abortions in June 2022, with many Republican-led states quickly moving to restrict or outright ban the procedure.

Earlier this year, the Arizona state supreme court upheld a total abortion ban dating back to 1864, which prohibited abortion at any stage of pregnancy unless it was necessary to save the mother’s life.

The ruling garnered widespread criticism and was repealed a month later by the Arizona state legislature, after several Republicans broke with their party, which is in the majority, to join Democrats.

Arizona’s current 15-week ban allows exceptions to save the mother’s life, but does not carve out exceptions for pregnancies from rape or incest.

Several other states have abortion access ballot measures in the November election, including Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, New York and South Dakota, with several others still pending.

In addition to Arizona, 21 other states have set stricter standards for abortion since the fall of Roe v Wade, ranging from full bans to earlier gestational limits.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Denmark permits abortion up to the 18th week. File

Denmark’s government said May 3 it is relaxing its restrictions on abortion for the first time in 50 years to make it legal for women to terminate pregnancies up to the 18th week from the previous 12th week.

Officials said the law will also be changed to allow girls between 15 and 17 years old to have an abortion without parental consent.

Marie Bjerre, the gender equality minister, said Denmark is strengthening women’s rights while they are being rolled back in other parts of the world.

“It is about the individual woman’s freedom, about the right to decide over her own body and her own life. It is a historic day for women’s equality,” she said.

Free abortion was introduced in Denmark in 1973. The limit was set at up to 12 weeks because “at that time all abortions were performed surgically, and at that time an abortion after the 12th week entailed a greater risk of complications,” the health ministry said.

“After 50 years, it is time for the abortion rules to keep up with the times,” Health Minister Sophie Løhde said.

She said neighbouring Sweden, which set the legal limit at 18 weeks of gestation in 1996, has not experienced a significant increase in the number of abortions or when they are carried out.

The three-party centre government agreed on the move with two left-leaning groups, the Socialist People’s Party and the Red-Green Alliance, and two centre parties, the Social Liberals and the Alternative. The deal is to be sealed by a vote in parliament. No date for that was announced, but it is all but certain to pass because the government has a majority.

The change is expected to enter into force on June 1, 2025.

The health ministry said the legal age of consent in Denmark is 15, and a 15-year-old girl can make her own choices about her own body.

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Ms. Bjerre said that she hoped that “young women can find support from their parents. But if there is disagreement, it must ultimately be the young woman’s own decision whether she wants to be a mother. It is her body and her life.” Lawmaker Mette Thiesen, from a populist, anti-immigration party that was not part of the deal, called it ”a terrible day. It’s a terrible new law.” There is a “very fine balance between the woman’s right to her own body, but also the right to life of the little life that lies in the mother’s womb,” she told Danish broadcaster DR. “In week 18, we are talking about a small person with fingers and toes, which you can feel inside the womb.” Figures from the Danish Health Data Authority show that the total number of abortions in Denmark has been stable in recent years. In 2022 there were 14,700 medical abortions, compared to 14,500 in 2017. It peaked in 1975 when 27,900 abortions were performed.

While abortion is a deeply divisive issue in the United States, it is broadly legal across Europe.

France inscribed the guaranteed right to abortion in its constitution in a world first this year, sending a powerful message of support to women around the globe. Meanwhile, Poland’s parliament held a long-awaited debate on liberalising the country’s restrictive law last month — although many women terminate pregnancies at home with pills mailed from abroad.

In Germany, which has a more restrictive approach than many other European countries, an independent commission reviewing abortion law recently recommended that the procedure be made legal during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.