The Trump regime's attacks on our rights double as an affront to democracy

Women’s, reproductive, and LGBTQ rights must be seen as the central force they are in authoritarian power plays.

It is a headlines round-up kind of week. The pace of the news is so fast, so furious, there are far too many below-the-fold stories likely to escape notice. But, damn, summarizing them in aggregate never fails to crystallize how often attacks on women’s rights double as an affront to democracy—or how imperative it is that we remain vigilant that the two inextricably go hand in hand.

Here is a sampling from across the airwaves:

Weaponizing federal agencies. Last week, The Contrarian covered the Food and Drug Administration’s recent greenlighting of a generic form of the abortion medication mifepristone—a move so rote and routine it would be almost mundane at any other moment. But now it is spurring fierce outcry among congressional Republicans—who have similarly set their sights on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to pursue an anti-abortion agenda. Sen. James Lankford and Rep. Josh Brecheen, both of Oklahoma, issued a letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zedlin demanding the agency conduct a study about whether mifepristone use is “contaminating” the nation’s water supply—a claim that has been repeatedly dismissed by environmental experts. The EPA took up the task anyway, according to an Oct. 10 New York Times article, in which former agency heads expressed alarm about the misuse of wastewater testing technology. One lamented anonymously on his or her own role in accidentally building “the death star.” Another called this particular inquiry “off the charts.” So much for a new era of government efficiency.

Waning enforcement of federal clinic access law. Early in the Trump administration, the Department of Justice announced it would no longer enforce the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, the hard-won 1994 law imposing federal penalties on protestors who threaten, obstruct, or cause injury to people attempting to access reproductive health clinics. The Guardian recently reported that anti-abortion harassment has grown increasingly bolder ever since, highlighting six clinic protestors, including two pardoned by President Donald Trump, who have now been charged by the state of Pennsylvania for trespass (and apparent flinging of “holy water and salt”). According to preliminary numbers shared by the National Abortion Federation, so far this year, clinics nationwide have reported more than 67,000 incidents of “threatening or suspicious mail, calls and social media posts, compared with fewer than 2,000 in 2024,” as the Guardian reported. (It’s worth noting that DOJ is opting to make use of FACE for unrelated cases, in particular to target protests at houses of worship – proving, again, that the cruelty is the point.)

Weakening support for women in U.S. global policy. A fascinating analysis published Monday by Foreign Policy shows that rather than steer U.S. global engagement on women’s rights rightward—a predictable pendulum swing—the Trump administration has chosen to upend a half century of bipartisan policy precedent and erase women altogether. This ranges from dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development and its programs to attempting to eliminate bilateral funding for family planning, reproductive health, and maternal and child health to announcing global health strategy that overtly excludes women. The influence of women is further diminished by the elimination of the State Department’s Office of Global Women’s Issues and the Pentagon’s Women, Peace & Security Program. According to the article, “The Trump administration is trying to rebrand any attention to women and gender equality in U.S. foreign policy as radical left-wing overreach. But it is the White House’s rejection of a bipartisan consensus going back more than 70 years that is the real break with the past.”

Weathering backsliding around the globe. Myriad reports out of the annual Athens Democracy Forum held in Greece this month focused on the rollback of gender rights worldwide as “a symptom and a tool of democratic decline,” according to Lisa Witter, co-founder and chief executive of the Better Politics Foundation. Democracy experts regularly cite attacks on reproductive health care as an early red flag that indicate a democracy in regression—a case made here since The Contrarian’s inception—a barometer that puts the United States in the company of Poland, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, all nations where access to abortion rights have been retracted and curtailed.

Bringing all the above to bear is a development reported out of England this week. A riveting New York Times series follows the global pursuit of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the U.S.-based group behind legal challenges to LGBTQ and reproductive rights, in service of a broader mission to insert and cement Christianity in public life. Now ADF has moved to “rapidly establish itself as a power broker between the country’s rising populist movement and President Trump’s Washington.” Its entry issue? Abortion, of course. Well, abortion in the context of free speech and clinic protests. (A reminder of why the Trump administration’s FACE Act dance speaks volumes.)

It’s a page ripped straight from the playbook we are being shown over and over again. It is time to stop acting surprised each time the right moves the needle. And it’s way past time for letting pundits get away with writing off abortion rights as a chip for bargaining with Republicans. (Looking at you, Ezra Klein.)

Women’s, reproductive, and LGBTQ rights must be seen as the central force they are in authoritarian power plays—and mobilizing our own power. I know it feels hard to prioritize it all. Which is why I’ll keep reminding us of this in every column I write. See you here again next week.

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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