The degradation of democracy and abortion rights go hand in hand

Fortunately, courts are countering or stalling some of the administration's power grabs and its retaliatory agenda.

The federal judiciary has proved a powerful bulwark in the first six months of the Trump administration, countering or stalling some of its most naked power grabs and retaliatory agenda. On Monday, a district court in Boston issued yet another key order: At least for now, President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” signed into law on July 4, cannot effectively defund Planned Parenthood by depriving its clinics of Medicaid funding while litigation in the case continues. (The law also impacts some independent clinics not affiliated with Planned Parenthood.)

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA, the nationwide institution) and its member organizations in Massachusetts and Utah filed the lawsuit against Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this month. Monday’s court order expands a prior preliminary injunction that blocked the government from cutting Medicaid payments to certain clinics (those that do not provide abortions or had not received at least $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in a given year). According to Judge Indira Talwani, all Planned Parenthood patients “are likely to suffer adverse health consequences where care is disrupted or unavailable.”

Under the new law, PPFA remains at grave risk of having to shutter nearly 200 clinics in 24 states—facilities that serve more than a million patients—impacting a wide array of care, from contraceptive prescriptions to cancer screenings. The Guardian reported that closures would hit blue states just as hard as red states; Abortion Every Day creator Jessica Valenti wrote, “[n]inety percent of those closures would happen in states where abortion is legal. In effect, it’s a national backdoor abortion ban.” Already, California’s Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, which serves the Bay Area and Central Coast, has closed five clinics as a result of the law.

The Contrarian has been regularly covering the plan to defund Planned Parenthood – a series of punches pulled straight out of the pages of Project 2025. Going after Medicaid has been round one; nearly half of Planned Parenthood’s patients nationwide rely on it for their healthcare coverage. In addition to the congressional tax and spending bill, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic that individual states, in this case South Carolina, can remove Planned Parenthood clinics from Medicaid programs.

Another go-to strategy for decimating reproductive health and attacking Planned Parenthood has been a coordinated nationwide attempt to undermine access to medication abortion, which accounts for the majority of U.S. abortions (63% as of 2023, according to the Guttmacher Institute). Just last week, Missouri sued PPFA in an attempt to curb access to mifepristone, claiming the national organization is in violation of Missouri’s consumer protection law—basically arguing that sharing the decades of data pointing to mifepristone’s safe, effective use amounts to dishonest advertising.

The suit demands more than $1.8 million in civil penalties, a fine of $1,000 in damages or restitution per every woman in the state who has been prescribed abortion medication by Planned Parenthood in the past five years, and reimbursement from PPFA to the state for Medicaid and other publicly funded emergency care provided to people who experienced complications from mifepristone (which are rare).

Lest there be any lingering doubt that the degradation of democracy and abortion rights inevitably go hand in hand, take a look at what else is happening in the Show-Me State. Exhibit A: a full-throated ploy to roll back Amendment 3, the abortion rights measure voters enshrined in the state constitution last November. A new abortion ban will be up for a vote in the 2026 elections, possibly sooner if the governor calls a special election. The craftily worded measure does not specifically mention repealing Amendment 3; instead, it appeals to women’s safety and protection of minors. Republican lawmakers cut off debate to jam it through at the end of the 2025 legislative session in what is, according to Politico, the first example of voters possibly repealing a post-Dobbs abortion-rights measure that has already passed.

But it surely will not be the last.

For now, we can find some solace that the courts have taken on much of the heavy lifting to protect democratic values and systems. We can support the army of democracy defenders – principled lawyers, filing suit after suit after suit. And we can be (and cheer on) the everyday people who take to the streets, fill town halls, and forge a powerful democracy movement.

What else can we do? I get asked that quite a bit after each weekly column. Is any of the above enough? It certainly is. But I was also super excited to learn while writing this week’s entry that Missourians have formed a new coalition, Respect MO Voters, that has spearheaded a campaign to pass a ballot initiative for a state constitutional amendment that will ban politicians from overturning initiatives that voters have already passed, attacking citizens’ ability to use the initiative process, and deceiving voters with confusing ballot language. Read all about it and be inspired!

I’ll also say this: Abortion and gender are my beat, but a free and fair democracy is our shared goal. We are in this together. Onward to the collective fights ahead.

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf is executive director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at NYU School of Law. She also leads strategy and partnerships at Ms. Magazine.

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