President Donald Trump is anti-woman in every sense of the descriptor. It has been expressed very clearly through his long history of misogynistic remarks, demonstrating blatant disrespect toward female government officials and implementing rules restricting women’s reproductive rights.

Throughout Trump’s presidency, a number of policies have been introduced in an attempt to prevent access to contraception and abortions. One of these new policies blocks funding for Planned Parenthood, an organization that provides abortions but also provides affordable birth control, STI screenings and a number of other healthcare services. Another new policy eliminates the requirement under the Affordable Care Act, which states all insurance plans must provide financial coverage for birth control, thus putting the decision of whether or not millions of women receive birth control in the hands of their respective employers. The administration has even gone as far as to put a religious imposition measure in place which allows physicians to refuse to perform abortion procedures for personal, moral or religious reasons in certain states. 

These are only a few of the new policies that have been implemented since Trump has been in office which serve to reinforce not only the anti-abortion agenda but also the anti-woman agenda across the United States. By making both birth control and abortion immensely more difficult to obtain, the administration is deliberately putting women’s lives in danger. As access to birth control is restricted, more women will experience unwanted pregnancies and seek abortions. By extension, the more restricted access to abortions is, the more women are at risk of permanent injury and death due to unsafe, illegal abortions. Pro-life advocates have long placed the rights of the fetus over the rights of the woman who carries it, and Trump’s presidency is the platform they needed to start tearing down the rights American women have fought for decades to win.

Pro-life activists have become increasingly aggressive in their attempts to prevent women from accessing reproductive healthcare. The year President Trump was sworn into office, the National Abortion Federation reported an alarming nationwide increase of trespassing, obstruction, invasions, threats, picketing and clinic blockades from pro-life activists. The true goal for the president and for his anti-abortion advisors is not to create a truly “pro-life” agenda — it’s to strip women of their rights.

Pro-life activists and the Trump Administration don’t seem to be planning on stopping anytime soon — they are now attacking women’s reproductive rights at the very roots. They are working to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case which was ruled in favor of a woman seeking abortion and became a landmark case protecting a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion without excessive governmental restriction. With the majority of the current Supreme Court justices leaning to the right, chances are good that Roe v. Wade will soon be no more than just another case.

As if it wasn’t hard enough for women to access reproductive healthcare before Trump’s presidency, for millions of women it is now nearly impossible. Between fear of attacks from activists and the inability to come up with the money, many women are now facing unwanted pregnancies, the traumas that come with them and reproductive health issues. 

While the fate of American women is in limbo, one thing is for sure — as long as Donald Trump is in office, he and his supporters will continue to eat away at women’s rights in the United States for as long as we allow them to do so.

Rachel is a freshman in DGS.

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