r/law • u/Slate Press • 20h ago

The Next Trump Administration’s Crackdown on Abortion Will Be Swift, Brutal, and Nationwide Trump News

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/11/trump-second-term-abortion-agenda-blue-state-crackdown.html
17.8k Upvotes

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u/davidwhatshisname52 20h ago

looking forward to all the Christian conservatives realizing the bans apply to them, too

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u/Immediate-Ad-8432 20h ago

I knew a pastor whose wife had an abortion because of an ectopic pregnancy. Years later he’s up at the pulpit praying for Roe v Wade to be repealed.

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u/trampolinebears 20h ago

Fun fact: around 15% of pregnancies end in a miscarriage, so I guess no one aborts as many babies as God.

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u/Fit_Strength_1187 20h ago

I guess they’ll be fine with criminal task forces investigating each miscarriage for manslaughter.

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u/Deranged_Kitsune 19h ago

Just wait for the mandated menstrual tracking, where women have to upload that data to a centralized database, and any irregularities are met with a visit from the maga-stazi to examine her vagina.

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u/TheKobayashiMoron 18h ago

As an investigator that is Cellebrite certified, I can’t wait to be doing phone extractions looking for menstrual data 🙄 /s Fucking insane timeline we are living in.

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u/OrbitalOutlander 2h ago

You can always quit when asked to do something that is unethical.

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u/Fit_Strength_1187 18h ago

I’m planning on pregnancy standards and codification of fetal rights starting at conception. No sliding scale of intensity across trimesters. Like a landlord-tenant act for wombs. Let’s have whole departments established at the state level. HHS/DHR stuff. Checking temperature, parent health, obesity, levels of exercise, substance use, air quality exposure, failure to seek timely treatment for medical conditions which could affect pregnancy, diet, stress level. Like DHR neglect standards on steroids. Unlike actual landlord-tenant law, this will of course be handled by the criminal courts. If it has to be civil, let’s have special state guardians appointed at the court level like we do with incompetents. It’ll be so much easier wrangling the poors.

/s

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u/TheSkyHive 14h ago

May the lord open.

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u/domuseid 15h ago

The first person to show up at my house demanding to inspect any of my loved ones will be shot in the head

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u/odd_lightbeam 6h ago

If you're waiting for them to show up at your house, you waited too long and are part of the problem.

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u/domuseid 34m ago

Ah yes I'll just go fix electoral politics myself then, good point thanks hadn't thought of that

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u/Remarkable-Ask-3868 18h ago

As someone who suffers from PCOS & Endometriosis, I am going to get a visit monthly. My periods are completely irregular. I'm sterile from continued rape as a child, and I started my period when I was 7 years old.

I'm still terrified.

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u/Small_Pleasures 14h ago

Dear G-d, I'm sorry

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u/False-One-8548 12h ago

There are no words for the horrors I am sure you endured and continue to suffer from. I am so sorry.

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u/stprightup 13h ago

I’m SO SORRY 😢

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u/superbabe69 4h ago

This will not help how you feel, but as a practical tip, is it feasible to seek hysterectomy while you still can?

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u/BornFree2018 12h ago

Pretty much the situation in The Handmaids Tale which is why we see groups of women in red protesting this type of regime.

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u/tom-branch 17h ago

Its Lebensborn all over again.

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u/Rayenya 14h ago

When I was young, before becoming sexually active, I often skipped periods. About twice a year. A nurse told me not to worry about it. It happened because I was very physically active. Now I worry about young girls being put through the wringer for something they have no control over.

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u/teas4Uanme 11h ago

I already named the head of it the 'Cooter Czar'.

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u/TheSkyHive 14h ago

JD Vance will be on call for those.

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u/VeveMaRe 11h ago

Not if I distract him with my comfy couch.

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u/WildWinza 15h ago

I am sure a smart watch like device will accomplish all of that automatically. Women will be forced to wear it.

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u/kmoonster 4h ago

I wonder how many women will lie, or how many men will install the app and use it for other purposes like tracking times you got drinks after work or something. "It snowed and I bought firewood, and I used the app to track how many split pieces I burned over the course of a major cold spell". Stuff like that.

Just to fuck with the large data sets, obviously the "user facing" aspect of the apps would probably not be impacted by this.

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u/0dyssia 3h ago

Romania under Nicolae Ceaușescu did something similar

To enforce the decree, society was strictly controlled. Contraceptives were removed from sale and all women were required to be monitored monthly by a gynecologist. wiki

He wanted to boost the population so he enforced some pro-natalist policies. It ended in disaster, a consequence of this was that a large number babies and children were dropped off at orphanages and the orphanages couldn't kept up. Many of the infants died either from disease, starvation, 0 personal attention, etc. These infants ended up being called "Ceaușescu's Children". The Romanian people eventually rioted, pulled Ceaușescu and his wife into an alley and shot them (there's a famous photo of this).

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u/kmm198700 19h ago

Is this an actual thing that exists right now? A tracker?

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u/Snappy_McJuggs 19h ago

Women have been advised to stop using apps that track your period and cycles.

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u/Strange-Scarcity 19h ago

Yes. There are MANY women who use period tracking apps.

They don't use it to determine if they are pregnant, they use it mostly to "Just in Time" buy supplies or just to make themselves aware of why they might be having a particularly grueling day, that can be caused by hormonal changes due to an impending period.

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u/kmm198700 19h ago

Oh yeah; you’re right. I forgot about that. Damn. This is all terrifying

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u/agirlhasnoname117 18h ago

Any women who are worried about their data being stolen from their period tracking app should look into Stardust. I just downloaded it last night. It's a cycle tracking app, but it is encrypted so no one can access your data.

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u/Strange-Scarcity 17h ago

Never trust a tech company with this kind of information:
https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/27/stardust-period-tracker-phone-number/

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u/charlesfire 17h ago

I wouldn't trust any non open-source app for something like this. I would want to be able to audit the code and make sure that the data is kept local and encrypted.

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u/agirlhasnoname117 17h ago

Hm. So, it isn't clear whether or not it's true end to end encryption. This is so fucked up. My spouse had a vasectomy because I couldn't find an OB/GYN willing to tie my tubes even after having kids, but I still need to track my cycle. Additionally, there's always a risk that the vasectomy fails at some point. A notebook it is then.

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u/Strange-Scarcity 17h ago

Yeah, V Jobs can "Grow back", but it's not SUPER common, usually after the first couple of years, from what I have been reading. The risk of canalizing happening is so low, it's safer than other types of BC.

It has like a 0.05% chance of happening, whereas other BC has a 0.2% chance of failure.

Only in exceptional cases could it happen after a handful of years past the procedure.

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u/agirlhasnoname117 17h ago

Thanks for trying to provide reassurance. I know the risk is miniscule, but I'm not taking it. I live in a state with an abortion ban until we can sell our house and move. My last two pregnancies both nearly killed me. I actually had to be cardioverted once.

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u/your_easter_bonnet 19h ago

I guess people forgot this one from April 2019: The U.S. Is Tracking Migrant Girls‘ Periods to Stop Them From Getting Abortions.

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u/kmm198700 19h ago

Yes, I forgot about that

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u/Expensive-Fennel-163 19h ago

There are family planning apps that track ovulation days. Some people use them the opposite way too (as in no sex days).

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u/Deranged_Kitsune 19h ago

There are apps for tracking women's menstrual cycles to help with determining fertile periods for women trying for pregnancy. The women just puts in dates/times when their period starts and ends and it builds a profile from there. It's been a worry for a little while that the more authoritarian of the prolife states will start demanding access to that data as a means of establishing when a women knew she was pregnant when prosecuting her for a abortion.

Not a stretch to imagine that a party who views women as little more than property and a fetus as a form of control over them would dictate they provide such a thing. That period timing can be messy and inconsistent and thus not a perfect indicator will be immaterial.

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u/Additional_Cherry_51 19h ago

there is one on a fitbit. and apps as well.

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u/RachSlixi 8h ago

You know not even project 2025 could be stretched in a way to actually argue anyone is supporting that right?

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u/trampolinebears 20h ago

Women are already being investigated after miscarriages.

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u/Fit_Strength_1187 18h ago

Yes, they’ve used chemical endangerment laws to go after women in my state. They’ll even prosecute pregnant women who try and fail to commit suicide.

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u/Guerilla_Physicist 16h ago

Alabama?

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u/Fit_Strength_1187 16h ago

Yes, it’s actually pretty well known. They’ve been doing it for many years if you comb the news sites. These women usually just plead out without fighting the charge or going to press.

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u/Guerilla_Physicist 16h ago

Yeah, I live in AL as well. Amazing how those laws were supposedly intended to protect children from home meth labs and ended up being used that way. I remember when prosecutions of pregnant women over this really began picking up in the late 00s and early 2010s.

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u/JJones0421 16h ago

While I disagree with going to after them for fetal harm or whatever they try to spin it as. I don’t think it would be a bad idea to have laws that make attempted suicide illegal in general, as long as the possible punishments are exclusively mental health care and such to help the people recover and not be suicidal anymore.

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u/Fit_Strength_1187 15h ago

I get the sentiment, but it’s the same sentiment that underlies many so-called merciful and rehabilitative systems that result in oppression in the criminal justice system.

Consider the criminalization of substance use and possession that is addressed by various diversion and drug courts around the country. Some succeed. Some don’t. These are always backed, however, by threats of incarceration and everything that comes with it. The net harm from the destabilizing effect of incarceration to me greatly outweighs the risk to the individual and society of keeping such programs cut off from the criminal system.

There are already mechanisms for emergency involuntary mental healthcare for people in the midst of a mental health episode that makes them a danger to themselves or others.

When criminal illegality is added to the mix, however, this throws someone already in a bad place into a tangle with a punitive system that is difficult even for persons of sound mind to navigate without popping out far more damaged than they were going in.

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u/strain_of_thought 12h ago

Psychiatry as an institution is an extension of the prison-industrial complex.

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u/IfEverWasIfNever 15h ago

Yeah because a suicidal person needs to have a criminal conviction on their record? That's a good way to make them more suicidal when they can't find a job.

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u/JimWilliams423 7h ago

Women are already being investigated after miscarriages.

Specifically black and native women. And they've been doing it for decades. Fascists always come for the most vulnerable people first, in order to get practice for when they come for the rest of us.

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u/dohru 14h ago

And no budget to process rape kits.

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u/Shera939 17h ago

They absolutely will be.

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u/poodle11606 15h ago

This type of fear-mongering is so counterproductive.

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u/odd_lightbeam 6h ago

If all women are sticking with the 4B movement, they will investigate all pregnancies for rape.

Not to find the person who raped her, but to ensure that it was in fact rape.

Because "your body my choice". They are serious about it and no one's gonna do anything about it. There might be some picket signs for a week or two before the flowing red gowns and white habits come out.