Multiple Trump regime appointees indicated support for a nationwide abortion ban, contradicting Trump’s 2024 campaign promise to leave abortion policy to the states
U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said on a call with a religious advocacy group that the Justice Department is working to make the Dobbs decision “permanent” nationwide
Newly confirmed CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz said she plans to expand the agency’s abortion surveillance, even though there is no evidence states are misreporting abortion data
Concerns are swirling about multiple appointees nominated by the Trump regime as they’ve indicated support for efforts to ban abortion nationwide, far from the comments Trump made prior to the 2024 election that he wanted abortion policies left to individual states.
In a discussion initially claimed to be private but posted online, hosted by the White House Faith Office and the religious group Intercessors for America, recently confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche said, prior to his confirmation vote in the Senate, that the Justice Department under Trump is working “so that the Dobbs decision becomes permanent in every single state,” Politico reported
The Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned federal abortion protections enshrined in law for a half-century through Roe v. Wade. Since that ruling, abortion has been either partially or fully banned in roughly half of the country.
Despite abortion restrictions growing in much of the United States, Dobbs did not reduce abortions in America, according to KFF. Data from the Society for Family Planning saw that average abortion rates increased from 2022 to 2025, reversing declines recorded in the years before the ruling.
Most Americans support abortion rights: 60% of American adults said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 38% said it should be illegal in all or most cases, according to Pew Research Center polling.
That data doesn’t concern Republican leaders, according to Blanche’s comments. He declared “victory will be soon” and “permanent,” with specific reference to future restrictions on telehealth access to reproductive healthcare.
Blanche was not the only Trump appointee to signal an increased crackdown on abortion rights. Dr. Erica Schwartz, confirmed this month as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, indicated during her confirmation hearing that she planned to enhance the CDC’s abortion surveillance, saying she wanted to make sure certain states were not “hiding abortions” as emergency services in their data, according to The Huffington Post.
There is no evidence that states misclassify abortion care in their reporting, the publication noted, adding that state-level abortion bans imposed since Dobbs have led to women being denied miscarriage care, resulting in serious illness and death in some cases.
