American Women Are Preparing for a War on Reproductive Rights Under President Trump

Americans are waking to the possibility of a crackdown on reproductive rights in light of a Trump-Pence presidency.

Sophia Benoit, a writer in Los Angeles, posted on Twitter:

if you have any questions about IUDs, i'm very serious you can DM me.

— Sophia Benoit (@1followernodad) November 9, 2016

Benoit told The Intercept that more than two dozen women reached out to her for advice about the IUD, a small device inserted into the uterus that, depending on the type, works for three to 12 years. “I recommend the IUD right now especially because it’s long term, which with 20 million+ Americans potentially losing their health insurance and potentially right to an abortion, is important,” she said.

https://twitter.com/seelions/status/796291959296028672

Any other women looking into getting an IUD before we have no authority over our own bodies or reproductive rights?

I know I am.

— Allison (@ehloanna) November 9, 2016

It's a good thing I'm going to change my birth control to a IUD this week.

It will outlast trump.

— Heather Mahler (@heatherlime) November 9, 2016

“I’m terribly worried about the status of reproductive rights,” Bella Mazzetti, a sexual health advocate, told The Intercept. “If [Republicans] are telling me what to do with my body, my uterus, without having experienced the same pain and health issues as women, that is them saying they know best. In this case, that is not true,” she said.

President-elect Donald Trump has been accused by a dozen women of sexual assault and harassment and was caught on tape bragging about sexual assault. In the final presidential debate, Trump said Roe v. Wade would be overturned “automatically.”

Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, introduced the first amendment to defund Planned Parenthood in Congress in 2007. He also co-sponsored a bill that sought to redefine rape, distinguishing between “forcible” rape and other kinds. This year, Pence signed an anti-abortion bill in Indiana that mandated funerals for all fetuses — it was struck down after a judge found it unconstitutional.

Trump also said he would repeal the Affordable Care Act, although what he would replace it with is unclear.

https://twitter.com/DakotaRoseHT/status/796238210749722626

These doors stay open. pic.twitter.com/YqrMBnWflM

— Planned Parenthood (@PPFA) November 9, 2016

“As an ob/gyn I am confronted daily with the complexities of women’s healthcare—medical, emotional, financial. Under a President Trump it would only get worse, and more dangerous,” wrote San Francisco-based doctor Jen Gunter in an article for Self Magazine last month.

Before the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973, as many as 5,000 women died annually from unsafe abortions.

“If Planned Parenthood wants to be involved in providing counseling services and HIV testing, they ought not be in the business of providing abortions,” Pence told Politico in 2011. “As long as they aspire to do that, I’ll be after them.”

“In a world where reproductive rights already seem too fragile, this is a huge blow,” Rosa Schwartzburg, a writer based in New York, told The Intercept. “There is no true liberalism without inclusive liberalism, and that means women, queer people, black people, brown people, disabled people, everyone. In stopping this movement of conservationism, we have to remember that there are people whose bodies and autonomy and safety are being affected so goddamn directly by this,” she said.