American author warns of possible abortion crisis if Trump regains the White House

Feminist writer Jessica Valenti’s Substack newsletter, titled “Abortion, Every Day,” began as a personal effort to track the impact of the United States Supreme Court’s decision to overturn longstanding abortion rights in 2022.

However, it has now evolved into a daily chronicle of American women’s struggle for reproductive freedom.

In an interview with AFP ahead of her latest book, “Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win,” the 45-year-old New Yorker urged progressives to go on the offensive and highlighted what’s at stake for Americans as the next election looms.

“If (Kamala) Harris loses, we’re definitely looking at a national abortion ban, even if it’s not official through Congress,” Valenti said from her home in Brooklyn.

One of former President Donald Trump’s first moves, Valenti warned, could be to replace the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and limit access to abortion pills, possibly by rolling back rules that now allow their mailing.

Conservative legal scholars go further, suggesting a future administration could interpret a 19th-century obscenity law to block access to all abortion-related supplies, not just pills.

That would effectively end the process nationwide, even in states where it remains legal.

Valenti remembers when feminists who warned that Roe could be overturned were dismissed as hysterical.

“We’re being told again that it’s never going to happen,” he said. “The same experts refuse to acknowledge that we will probably be right again.”

Since the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, including three Trump appointees, issued its ruling, 22 states have banned or severely restricted abortion.

Some states have allowed exemptions for rape or to save a woman’s life, but these have proven widely inadequate, forcing some women to cross state lines for lifesaving care.

None of this is accidental, Valenti argues—such exemptions were designed to make the bans seem less harsh, even if abortions are nearly impossible.

Her latest book came as ProPublica reported on the deaths of two black women in Georgia — deaths that could have been avoided if not for the state’s criminalization of dilation and curettage (D&C) procedures commonly used in abortions.

“It’s impossible for them to credibly claim that this is about saving lives and being ‘pro-life,'” Valenti said.

He believes America’s anti-abortion movement is best understood as a misogynistic, White Christian advocacy project seeking to turn the clock back decades.

For Valenti, as for many women, reproductive autonomy is not just political but deeply personal.

She ended her first pregnancy three months before meeting her husband. they had a daughter two years later.

Although she longed for another child, complications during a subsequent pregnancy gave her a 50% chance of developing a fatal disease.

“Of course, there was no real decision,” he said. “I made a parent’s decision,” choosing to terminate to ensure her little one would not be left without a mother.

While the media often focuses on “horror stories” of women losing their fertility – or their lives – due to abortion bans, Valenti stressed that “every abortion denied is a tragedy.”

Sometimes people just “don’t want to get pregnant, and that’s okay, that’s vital to your freedom over your body, your life, and your future.”

Strategically, Valenti urges Democrats to move beyond arguing that abortion is “safe, legal and rare,” and instead focus on strengthening legal protections.

“We’re in a moment where abortion is more popular than ever,” he said, citing polling that shows broad bipartisan support for keeping the government off the issue.

Over the past two years, whether in midterm elections, ballots or state judicial races, “any election that has played out, abortion rights have prevailed,” Valenti added.

With Harris, a pro-choice champion, leading the Democratic ticket, Valenti feels “more optimistic” than he did when Joe Biden, whose stance was more cautious, was running.

But Republican Trump “has been strategic in pretending to be more moderate on abortion, deliberately obfuscating his position,” Valenti warned. “I’m still worried.”