Since the Republican candidate’s victory in the White House, the purchase of abortion and morning-after pills has exploded in the United States. For good reason: Americans fear that access to these pills will become more complicated under a new Trump mandate, while the future president now seems to have all the cards in hand to pursue ever more severe policies in terms of reproductive rights.
Will the Americans face a “ reproductive apocalypse » ? In any case, this is what Elisa Wells wants to believe, the co-founder of Plan C, an organization which provides information on access to contraception and the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) to UNITED STATES. After the election of Donald Trump during the presidential election on November 5, many women did not wait to react: they decided to stock up on morning-after and abortion pills, in anticipation of possible future restrictions on their reproductive rights.
Demand for these pills has since exploded in the country, to the point that the Aid Access site, one of the largest suppliers of abortion pills online and by mail, particularly in the most restrictive states on abortion, has crashed a few hours after the victory of the Republican candidate. The platform received 10,000 requests in the space of one day on November 6, almost fifteen times more than the usual 600 daily requests, reported its founder, doctor Rebecca Gomperts, to the British newspaper The Independent.
Telemedicine service Wisp saw a 300% increase in requests for morning-after pills in the days following the election. Same story with Plan C, which recorded a 635% increase in traffic to its site, notes The Guardian. Appointments made at Planned Parenthood to have an IUD inserted also jumped by 760% on Wednesday, November 7, notes the organization. The same goes for appointments for male vasectomies, which have increased by 1,200%.
Trump’s contradictory position on abortion
The victory of the conservative ex-president has resurfaced the fears and apprehension of many women about seeing their reproductive rights further limited. So, are American women right to be afraid? “ It’s difficult to predict the future, but what is certain is that access to abortion will not be made easier under the new administration. », immediately asks Ludivine Gilli, director of the North America Observatory of the Jean Jaurès foundation.
Even if Donald Trump remained evasive on the subject throughout the campaign, the opinion of his party and its allies is much clearer. “ In MAGA software [“Make America Great Again”, le slogan de Donald Trump, NDLR]the right to abortion conditions women’s autonomy: it must therefore be removed », Supports, for example, researcher Marie-Cécile Naves in a publication of the Institute of International and Strategic Relations. “ Donald Trump does not work alone: he is surrounded enough by people openly against abortion that it seems understandable that part of the population is worried about the future of this right », underlines Héloïse Thomas, associate professor of English at the Polytechnic University of Hauts-de-France.
As a reminder, the Republican president boasted on social networks of having been the architect of the revocation of Roe v. Wade – which guaranteed the federal right to abortion – in June 2022 by the Supreme Court, by appointing three conservative judges to the highest American judicial body during its first term. Currently, more than a dozen states, mostly in the south of the country, still ban access to abortion while seven others have strict restrictions and limited time limits for access.
Banning abortion at the national level, a plausible measure for the new administration?
However, Donald Trump declared on X at the beginning of October that he would veto a federal ban on abortion, preferring to leave the responsibility for legislating on the issue to the states. But now that the Republicans hold the majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate, “ What would Trump do if Congress passed such a ban? ?, asks Ludivine Gilli. He would most likely sign it. »
According to the expert, it is however implausible that the organs of the American legislative power embark on the development of such a national measure. “ Republican majorities in Congress are razor thin. And by electoral considerations, certain Republican deputies, with a mandate to come up for grabs in two years, would not necessarily vote for a national ban if they want to keep their seats “, unfolds the researcher.
Because acting on abortion at the national level means attacking a right despite everything relatively popular in the United States. According to a survey carried out by the Pew Research Center as of May 2024, 63% of Americans believe abortion should be completely legal.
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A trend which was confirmed on November 5: in ten states, voters had to decide on the subject during referendums organized in parallel with the presidential election. In seven of these states, with the exception of Nebraska, South Dakota and Florida, amendments in favor of more protection for abortion were adopted. In Missouri, a very conservative state and one of the strictest on access to abortion, the total ban that was in place was even lifted.
Targeting the marketing of the abortion pill
But in addition to the legislative route, the Trump administration could above all be tempted to use the levers of the federal state, in particular by targeting the abortion pill or the agencies helping with access to reproductive rights. This is precisely why many American women have been stockpiling pills since the election of the Republican candidate, in case “ they would be removed from the market », specifies doctor Rebecca Gomperts at The Independent.
“ It is up to Donald Trump, as president, to appoint someone to head the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who is responsible for authorizing or not marketing drugs. So we can quite imagine a measure by the Trump administration to suspend the authorization of abortion pills. And there, for women who want to have an abortion, it would become a real catastrophe », analyzes Ludivine Gilli.
Because in the space of around twenty years, the number of abortions performed by medication has increased from zero in 2000 to 63% in 2023, according to the Guttmacher research institutethe vast majority. As has recently highlighted the institutethis idea of returning to the marketing of abortion pills, in particular mifepristone, is an integral part of the “Project 2025”this 900-page radical government program, concocted in 2022 by the very conservative think tank “Heritage Foundation”, from which Donald Trump distanced himself during his electoral campaign despite the multiple links between the two.
“ Deconstruct mechanisms protection of women’s rights »
The elected president also has the power to appoint federal judges, and thus to reshape the judicial system in an ultraconservative direction, or even to indirectly influence the right to abortion when it is submitted to the courts.
“ At the state level, there is also the possibility of putting obstacles in the way of clinics that offer abortion. To add constraints to the medical profession and patients, to impose extended deadlines, a series of complex procedures, obligatory meetings with psychologists… It also means reducing, or even blocking, public subsidies to clinics that practice abortion , NGOs or public organizations that provide information on the subject », adds Héloïse Thomas.
The new government could also, without tackling abortion head-on, “ deconstruct mechanisms to protect women’s rights put in place by former administrations », slips Ludivine Gilli. Then beyond the right to abortion, “ the Supreme Court also has its sights set on medically assisted procreation and contraception », continues the specialist. With the return of a Trump ecosystem “ deeply misogynistic and anti-feminist » in a few weeks, sexual health organizations and activists are preparing for the worst.
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⇒ Two questions to Ludivine Gilli and Héloïse Thomas
RFI: According to exit pollswomen voted 53% for Kamala Harris. Why did the fact of focusing on the issue of abortion during her campaign not motivate Americans more to vote for her? ?
Ludivine Gilli: Kamala Harris’ strategy was in particular to highlight the defense of freedoms, with on one side the defense of democracy and on the other the defense of women’s rights. She tried to broaden her electorate by reaching suburban women, moderate Republican women… Obviously, her message was not sufficiently convincing. Because for part of the female electorate, even if the subject of abortion is undoubtedly important, it is the economic questions which weighed above all, and Donald Trump was able to appear more credible in improving their daily lives.
Héloïse Thomas: There are also people who think they are protected or who do not feel concerned by more repressive policies on abortion.
If we dissect the female vote, 53% of white women voted for Donald Trump. What attracted them to the Republican candidate?
Ludivine Gilli: Already, some simply voted for Trump out of deep conviction. Beyond the economy, we also have women who are conservative, who want the implementation of a conservative program and who did not want a Democrat in power. Some have undoubtedly also ignored the crude side of Donald Trump, being instead attracted by his frankness, his “sincerity”. Then in the November 5 election, many women actually voted for Donald Trump, while voting in favor of abortion protections in states where there was a referendum on the subject. Because voting for a candidate does not necessarily mean that we adhere to everything he represents or to all his positions, but rather that we subscribe sufficiently to certain promises to vote for him.
Héloïse Thomas: There is also a portion of white women who voted more in the interest of their racial identity than their gender identity. Trump and his teams have spent months normalizing a virilist ideology and discourse that attracts a certain number of voters. Without forgetting the weight of religion, with a rise in Christian nationalism.