Aggrieved Men, Conspiracy Theories, and More Predictions for 2025

What's next for abortion and for Abortion, Every Day

It’s been a seriously long year in abortion rights, one capped off by an election outcome we all hoped would never happen. But it did happen, and now we have to gird ourselves for a new administration and the powerful new stream of attacks sure to come with it.

But here’s the thing: I know we’re up for it. Everything we’ve talked about, analyzed, and mobilized over here at the newsletter in 2024 has prepared us. Not only do we know what Republicans are going to do—we know how they’re going to do it and what they’re going to say to cover it up. This is what I mean when I say Abortion, Every Day isn’t ‘preaching to the choir,’ but arming it.

Before we get into 2025 predictions, let’s take a collective beat and remember how big our ‘choir’ really is. 81% of Americans believe abortion should be decided “between a woman and her doctor, not the government.” That’s a truly incredible number; over 80% of Americans don’t want pregnancy to be legislated at all.

In a moment when things are difficult and we know they’re about to get worse, it helps to remember that we have the people on our side.

All that said, let’s talk about the next year in abortion rights. There is so much I’m watching for in 2025—whether it’s attacks on abortion medication, misleading messaging, or the way that Republicans continue to undermine democracy. But for right now, I wanted to hone in on just a few growing tactics that might not be as obvious; these are strategies that aren’t just dangerous because of what they do, but because of how hidden they can be.

Make sure to read until the end: With a new year of attacks, we need a new year of fighting back. So please check out what AED’s plans are for 2025!

Click to skip ahead: Aggrieved Men, The New Mommy Wars, Ending Exceptions, ‘Free’ Speech, Attacks on Minors, Other Tactics to Watch. Finally: What’s Next for AED

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Aggrieved Men

Anti-abortion groups have a PR problem: Americans don’t like abortion bans, and the only women who are going public with stories about anti-abortion policies are those who oppose them. In part, conservatives think they can take this on by pitting women against each other (as I outline in the next ‘mommy wars’ section). But their other tactic—one I think we’ll see an unfortunate rise in—discards women’s support as a lost cause and goes all in on aggrieved men.

Led by activists like Jonathan Mitchell, anti-abortion organizations are seeking out abusive and aggrieved men—angry about their partners’ abortions—to bring lawsuits attacking reproductive rights.

We saw it back in 2023, for example, when Mitchell represented a man who sued his ex-wife’s friends for allegedly helping her obtain abortion medication. More recently, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a New York abortion provider for shipping abortion pills to a woman in the anti-abortion state; the case appears to have been brought to Paxton by the woman’s boyfriend, who was mad that she ended her pregnancy without his permission.

These men aren’t coming out of nowhere—conservative legal groups are working hard to find them. In November, The Washington Post reported that Texas Right to Life, for example, has been trying to find men to bring suits by hanging out at “‘abortion recovery groups’ that minister to men.”

In some ways, it’s a strategy born out of necessity: 99% of women who have abortions don’t regret their decision, so these groups are going to have a very difficult time finding women to bring suits. But the tactic also appeals to conservatives because it doubles down on what they love and do best—misogyny. Essentially, they’re making what we’ve always known explicit: This has always been about ensuring men’s control over women.

But what makes this so distressing is also what makes it weak: Conservatives are relying on the worst of the worst—abusers and controllers. That means they’re giving us the opportunity to point out, again and again, that this will always be about sexism.

The New Mommy Wars

If you missed my column yesterday, consider going back and giving it a read. Pitting women against each other over abortion—and valorizing those who carry doomed and dangerous pregnancies—is going to be a tremendous conservative tactic this year. Especially as more women come forward with horror stories:

The New Mommy Wars

Conservative culture won’t just valorize women who carry dangerous pregnancies, but those who die for them. This is something I’ve written about before: We’ve seen a rise in right-wing outlets publishing ‘heartwarming’ stories of women who refused cancer treatment while pregnant, for example. In 2025, I suspect this will expand beyond ultra-conservative publications, and that we’ll see these stories propped up in more places. I can imagine “everyday hero” news segments at local stations profiling women who died for their pregnancies, or mainstream newspapers covering it in trend pieces.

The goal will be to further their abortion ‘mommy war’ and—most importantly—make it appear as if women are actually eager to die for their pregnancies.

Ending Exceptions

There’s a reason that conservatives are eager to spin women suffering and dying as a good thing—they plan on us doing it a lot more often. In 2025, conservatives will try to do away with ‘exceptions’ for women’s lives.

This is a tactic I warned about back in November, laying out how they’ll do it step-by-step:

Conservatives Want to End 'Exceptions' for Women’s Lives

The short version is that they’ll continue to strategically redefine ‘abortion’ across law, culture and medicine, while pushing the false claim that abortion is never necessary to save a person’s life. The end goal is legislation that bans abortion in all cases, mandating that doctors only end life-threatening pregnancies using c-sections or induced vaginal birth, no matter the risk to the pregnant person.

What makes this strategy so insidious is that as they further it, they’ll be framing their moves as efforts to make anti-abortion policy safer for women. I wrote about this last year—how Republicans are passing ‘Med Ed’ laws they say will clarify abortion bans, but will actually codify even more dangerous and false definitions of abortion.

For obvious reasons, this will be a very hidden strategy. But the sooner we can call it out, the better.

‘Free’ Speech

In 2025, we’re going to see free speech weaponized to empower anti-abortion extremists while actual free speech is dismantled. Conservatives will be bringing more lawsuits against buffer zones, for example, claiming that these protections for abortion patients are actually a First Amendment violation. They want screaming in women’s faces to be legally declared free speech. (The goal is getting SCOTUS to overturn Hill v. Colorado, which determined that limiting harassment in front of a clinic isn’t a free speech violation.)

We’ll also see a renewed effort to do away with the FACE Act on free speech grounds; that’s the federal law that prohibits violence against reproductive health care clinics, or blocking patients from going in.

Anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers will also continue to claim that they have a free speech right to mislead and lie to the women unlucky enough to walk through their doors, bringing suits against state regulations that prevent them from doing so.

In short? They want to make it easier to harass and do violence to abortion patients and providers, while painting themselves as the victims. (Ever hear of DARVO?)

By the way, anti-abortion groups know exactly what they’re doing here. It isn’t a coincidence that they’re honing in on speech at the same time that there’s a right-wing obsession with spreading disinformation shrouded under the protection of the First Amendment. Just this week, Mark Zuckerberg announced the end of fact-checking on Meta platforms, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads. He said it led to “too much censorship.”

In 2025, we’re going to have our work cut out for us.

Attacks on Minors

Finally, I expect that we’ll see even more attacks on young people in 2025. This was a tactic that has already worked well for anti-abortion groups: Knowing that ‘parents’ rights’ are a whole lot more popular than abortion bans, conservatives used that messaging to oppose pro-choice ballot measures and push so-called abortion ‘trafficking’ laws.

Over the next year, I predict we’ll see anti-abortion lawmakers and activists use that ‘parents’ rights’ label in even more areas—sex education, restrictions on travel and birth control, and even in attacks on pro-choice websites.

In 2024, for example, we saw how conservatives started to pass laws that forced anti-abortion propaganda into school classrooms. I’m sure more states will pass similar laws, with increasing restrictions on what teachers can tell students about birth control, abortion—or even topics like puberty.

And in the same way Republicans have attacked gender-affirming care for minors, claiming that hormones are dangerous for teen bodies, we can expect the same argument against hormonal birth control for young women. This is a strategy they’ve already started to test out in lawsuits against abortion medication, arguing that it interferes with “developing reproductive systems.”

Finally, because conservatives are obsessed with stopping abortion funds from spreading awareness and information about options for care, I’m confident that some of the more egregious attacks on free speech—like laws targeting pro-choice websites—will be reworked to focus on young people specifically.

If they can’t ban websites with information about abortion medication throughout a state, for example, maybe they can ban them in schools or universities. Or require websites to have an age verification system, and terrify teens into believing they’ll be breaking the law if they visit the sites anyway or put in a false date of birth.

As that happens, we need to remember that what happens to young people today comes for us all tomorrow.

Other Tactics To Watch

Growing mainstream ‘abolition’ in policy and culture. So-called ‘abolitionists’ believe abortion should be punished as a homicide, with patients even getting the death penalty. And while Republicans don’t like to admit it publicly, they’re increasingly signing on to these extremist policies. The Texas GOP agreed to call for abortion to be punishable by the death penalty in their platform, for example, after a lobbying campaign by an ‘abolitionist’ group.

Deputizing local officials to aid criminalization. We’ve already seen how criminalization works on a local level—like local prosecutors targeting women for their pregnancy outcomes, or city councils passing anti-abortion ordinances. In 2025, those efforts will expand to other institutions. If the Comstock Act makes it illegal to mail abortion medication, for example, expect to see Republicans rely on enforcement using post office administrators. But we should be keeping an eye on any role that can be exploited to aid in criminalizations, from local school boards and hospital boards to campus police.

A rise in anti-abortion conspiracy theories, like ‘trafficking’ claims or the lie that the groundwater is being poisoned by abortion medication and fetal tissue. This will also connect to myths about hormonal birth control and the ‘make America healthy again’ crew that’s gained so much popularity over the last year or so.

Co-opting progressive rhetoric. Anti-abortion groups have been appropriating feminist language for some years now—calling themselves the ‘real’ feminists or saying women ‘deserve better’ than abortion. Now we’ll watch as they expand that appropriation to all sorts of progressive causes. That nonsense about the groundwater, for example, is rooted in the lie that conservatives care about protecting the environment. (In reality, they launched it after polling revealed the environment was a top concern for young people.)

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For other anti-abortion attacks we can expect under the Trump administration, make sure to read AED’s Project 2025 explainer:

Project 2025 & Abortion

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What’s Next for AED

As you can tell, we have a lot on our plate for 2025! I want to make sure that Abortion, Every Day meets the moment, so I have a plan to grow the newsletter and its community this year. And while I’m excited to share it with you, let me start by saying I wish none of this was necessary. My ultimate goal is a country where AED isn’t needed. Until that happens, I want to be as helpful as possible.

Under the new Trump administration, we’re going to need more expert coverage than ever. But without the election motivating newsrooms, abortion rights reporting is going to drop off. In fact, it’s already happening: Since election day, I’ve watched as stories about abortion literally disappeared overnight. If I had to guess, I’d say there’s about 10 or 15% of the coverage we had just a few weeks ago.

Some of that is expected, but I don’t think I need to tell you why it’s so worrying—especially right now.

Mainstream coverage may be falling off a cliff, but I’m doubling down.

Because of your support, AED has broken news, impacted policy and shaped the national debate; your support also allowed me work with researcher Grace Haley, who has been invaluable in helping me to dig deeper.

Thanks to reader subscriptions in 2024, the Abortion, Every Day team got even bigger! Our new social media & community strategist has grown AED’s audience by leaps and bounds—ensuring the abortion rights news we care about so much gets out on more platforms and to more people. (We had 10 million video views in November alone!) And our new AED assistant / project manager—in addition to keeping me relatively sane—has allowed me to do more in-person events, take on more partnerships, and see as many requests, story tips, and messages as possible.

With AED growing as quickly as it is, it wouldn’t be possible for me to do this work without these folks—and they’re here because of you.

In 2025, I want to do even more. Scratch that: We have to do even more. There are simply too many stories for me to keep track of and write about alone—especially if I want to do them justice. That’s why, if we can meet our goals by the spring, AED will hire an experienced reporter who can uncover anti-abortion tactics and attacks, and pinch hit when I need help with the daily report. I’ll also hire a managing editor to keep everything on track and help prioritize different investigations, interviews, columns and breaking news.

What’s more, I want to bring back the daily podcast! I know folks have missed the audio version of the newsletter, and I’ve missed ‘talking’ to you every day. But to do it right, I need to rent studio space and hire an engineer.

These additions will mark a huge and exciting shift for AED—but it’s one that I can’t do without reader support.

I’m settling in for the long haul, building the best possible version of an independent media source for abortion rights, and I need your help to do it.

So if you haven’t become a paying supporter yet, please do that now. You can also show your support by donating a subscription, gifting one to a friend, or donating directly to the newsletter.

Once we hit our subscriber and fundraising goal, I’ll let you know—and give you more information on those roles in case you know anyone who fits the bill. In the meantime, THANK YOU for your incredible support and commitment to the newsletter and this issue. It means so much to me. If we have to be in this nightmare, I’m glad we’re in it together. -Jessica