Abortion and access to reproductive healthcare were hot-topic issues driving women voters to the polls during the 2024 presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris and President-elect Donald Trump. Following Trump’s victory, the state of these medical rights has prompted ordinary women and medical professionals to brace for an uncertain future.
Trump’s stance on abortion and access to reproductive healthcare during his 2024 presidential campaign had inconsistencies in messaging. In March, he said that if elected, he would support a national 15-week abortion ban, only to retract that statement in April, saying he would leave the decision to the states. In May, he expressed openness to supporting contraceptive regulations before going back on that as well.
In states that typically vote Democratic in elections, these concerns may seem less pressing, as decisions currently lie with local legislation rather than the federal government. However, in D.C., the District’s lack of statehood leaves the reproductive future of women and medical professionals vulnerable to federal control.
Ebony Copeland, M.D., director of Howard’s Student Health Center, shared her team’s plan to continue serving students, especially women.
“We are in the District of Columbia, and ideally it’s going to remain autonomous in how it can serve women. The biggest thing for us is to rev up and promote the services that we provide, such as giving prescriptions for birth control, providing PrEP and even inserting IUDs,” Copeland said. “We have partnered with student leaders and spoken to students to inform them, but we are looking to increase our outreach.”
Despite her optimism about providing services in D.C., Copeland expressed deep concern for students from Southern states, where access to abortion and reproductive healthcare is under threat. States like Mississippi, which initiated the challenge to Roe v. Wade in 2021, have banned abortion entirely, while Georgia allows abortion up until a detectable fetal heartbeat with exceptions for rape or incest.
“A lot of these students come from the South, so I want them to take advantage of the resources up here. The state of women’s health was already not ideal, but now it is in jeopardy because of these laws in place,” Copeland said. “A lot of these students return to the South after graduation, and I implore them to find providers who affirm them and [they] are comfortable with.”
In the beginning of Trump’s political tenure, he was a staunch opponent of abortion and reproductive healthcare. During his first term in 2018, Trump supported a 20-week abortion ban and appointed conservative Supreme Court justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, who helped overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending 49 years of protections for women’s reproductive freedom.
For future medical professionals, this uncertain time has fueled their desire to protect their patients, particularly Black women, who have faced a history of medical disparities—mistreatment, abuse and neglect. Aaliyah Johnson, a junior biology major from Chicago and aspiring OB-GYN, expressed both concern and determination during these uncertain times.
“Despite Trump being in office, I would like to see an expansion in maternal health care both pre- and post-delivery, especially in underserved communities where mortality rates are higher and medical education is lower,” Johnson said.
“This has further encouraged me to become an OB-GYN. It is known that people are more comfortable when their providers look like them and can see and understand them as a human who feels the same things they do,” she said.
The newly appointed head of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has exhibited similar behavior to Trump by using language to appeal to both sides, stating that “every abortion is a tragedy” while identifying as pro-choice and leaving the decision to women.
As head of the department, Kennedy has the power to roll back policies such as removing FDA approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, a method that accounted for 63 percent of abortions last year, and allowing private insurance providers to deny abortion coverage.
Micah Clark, a senior political science major from D.C., is reconsidering her post-graduation plans under a second Trump presidency.
“It was always my goal to go to the University of Georgia for law school. I was born in Georgia and have family there, so it is a familiar place to me. However, with Georgia’s tight restrictions on abortion and the road that I see its position on women’s health going down, I’m not sure if it is a safe place for me anymore. I could be better off here, but I am unsure,” Clark said.
Support for access to abortion and reproductive healthcare has grown, with 54 percent of Americans identifying as pro-choice, a 7 percent increase since Trump’s first term in 2016, according to Gallup
“I was 13 during Trump’s first administration so it has been interesting seeing people change their minds as I’ve gotten older and traveled between Georgia and D.C. more,” Clark said. “You can see and feel the difference in people’s beliefs in the South in comparison to the North. People are more liberal up here of course, but I feel that there is more radicalism happening down South as well.”
As of Dec. 8, Trump reaffirmed his hands-off approach to the issue at a federal level emphasizing that it will be a states’ issue. “I don’t think’ access to abortion pills’ is going to change,” he said.
While federal intervention may not be a concern, it still leaves women and medical professionals with little clarity to chart out a roadmap for the future.
Copy edited by Anijah Franklin
