Democrats on Defense: The Party Is Digging In Its Heels on Abortion Post-Dobbs

Three years after the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, Democratic National Committee leadership says the party will go to the wall on abortion. A Supreme Court decision and the federal spending bill are about to make that a lot harder.

“Regardless of whether or not this is a popular issue or electorally winning issue, which it is, the reality is this is not an issue about right or left,” DNC Chairman Ken Martin said in response to a question from National Review. “This is an issue about right or wrong, and our party will always stand with women when they make their health care decisions. This is a decision that is left to them and them alone, and we will always stand with women in this regard.”

In a virtual press conference on Tuesday, Planned Parenthood officials, abortion-rights leaders, and DNC leadership decried “Donald Trump’s orchestration of the end of Roe v. Wade,” the “misinformation” of the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center’s study uncovering the risks of the mifepristone medical-abortion pill, and the spending bill and Supreme Court decision poised to defund Planned Parenthood.

The 30-minute press conference revealed a party on the defensive, even as leadership of both the Democratic Party and Planned Parenthood touted abortion access as a popular priority and a moral responsibility.

“Right now, the Trump administration is taking unprecedented action to roll back abortion rights, but in the face of the White House’s daily attacks and chaos, these attacks are going under the radar, so we’re here to shed some light on what they’re doing,” Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, said in her opening remarks.

If passed with its current language, the House-passed budget reconciliation bill will prevent Planned Parenthood patients from receiving Medicaid reimbursements — part of the right’s yearslong campaign to defund Big Abortion. A 6–3 decision at the Supreme Court on Thursday, in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, allows states to redirect taxpayer dollars away from abortion facilities like Planned Parenthood. It's up to the states to make that decision, but Medina opens the door.

“Under Medicaid, it’s a joint venture between the federal and state governments, so we need both pieces of the puzzle to address this,” Erik Baptist, senior counsel and director of the Center for Life at Alliance Defending Freedom, said. “One shoe dropped today. We hope Congress takes the other action with regard to federal funding.”

Timmaraju criticized the federal spending bill as a “backdoor abortion ban,” saying the lack of Medicaid reimbursements will force 200 of the 600 Planned Parenthood clinics in the country to close down.

Among those called out during the joint press conference for loyalism to Trump and “conspiring to revoke FDA approval of mifepristone” were Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, and congressional Republicans.

“These are the Trump loyalists who are dedicated to the dangerous ideology in Project 2025, including fringe ideas like prioritizing embryos and fetuses over pregnant people,” Timmaraju said.

Makary promised a full agency review of the safety of the chemical abortion drug earlier this month, after a bombshell study by the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center found that almost 11 percent of women experience a serious adverse effect within 45 days after a mifepristone abortion. That figure is 22 times higher than the drug's current label indicates.

Democrats have called the credibility of that study into question in recent weeks. Four Democratic state attorneys general have petitioned the FDA to lift remaining mifepristone restrictions.

“We've called on the Trump FDA to conduct its own comprehensive review of the safety of mifepristone fully confident that when they examine the insurance claims data, they will find exactly what we found,” Ryan T. Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, previously told National Review.

Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood, criticized the study on Tuesday but did not respond to follow-up questions regarding why she thinks the findings are flawed.

“This report is clearly an attempt to use misinformation to try to deny access to people seeking medication abortion,” McGill Johnson said. “It is another attempt to chip away at the very limited rights that women have in this country right now to secure access to abortion.”

Protecting abortion access still holds popular support, as McGill Johnson was quick to point out. Sixty-three percent of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and 36 percent say it should be illegal in all or most cases, according to 2024 data published by the Pew Research Center.

When asked if abortion is still a salient issue for voters, McGill Johnson pointed to these numbers and the success of ballot initiatives at the state level. While calling Planned Parenthood "nonpartisan," she pledged to stick with Democrats to fight for widespread abortion access.

“We value folks who support reproductive freedom,” McGill Johnson said. “The other side of the aisle, unfortunately, they are few and far between. And we would love to see more. But for now I’m going to double down on supporting and staying with the champions who have gotten us here so far.”

Despite the potential loss of Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood at the state and federal levels, and increased scrutiny around the safety of mifepristone, Democrats will defend abortion access because they have made it a moral imperative to do so. The party has made clear that it will stand by Planned Parenthood — and by the pro-abortion agenda it purveys and on which its business model depends.