The DOJ Plans to Target Pro-Choice Activists

4.30.25

Click to skip ahead: In Meet the Creeps, say hello to Missouri Rep. Hardy Billington. Title X News has the latest on two states that had their funding restored—and a MASSIVE hint dropped by Speaker Mike Johnson. In the States, news from Missouri, Florida, North Carolina, Colorado, and more. In the Nation, the Trump administration plans to target pro-choice activists. Coming Tomorrow, all about SB 2880 in Texas—one of the most sweeping anti-abortion attacks yet.

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Meet the Creeps

Why can’t these men just be normal for a single day? Just 24 blissful hours without having to know what’s rattling around in their brains?

Today’s creep is Rep. Hardy Billington of Missouri, who voted against a bill to ban child marriage—because, he says, it might lead to more abortions. Yes, really.

House Bill 737 would raise the minimum age for marriage to 18. Seems reasonable! Right now, 16-year-olds can marry with parental permission, as long as their spouse is under 21. Democrats (rightly) pointed out that the current law allows parents to marry off their kids against their will.

But Rep. Billington wasn’t having it. “We all claim to be pro-life here in the body,” he said. “Now we’re going to vote on this bill where babies are going to die.”

Incredibly, this isn’t the first time the Republican representative has made this argument. Billington—who helped tank a previous attempt to ban child marriage in Missouri—seems to think that child marriage will reduce abortion rates:

“My opinion is that if someone [wants to] get married at 17, and they’re going to have a baby and they cannot get married, then…chances of abortion are extremely high.”

I wish Billington was the only child marriage creep in a state legislature. As Rolling Stone reported last year, this twisted logic is increasingly common among Republicans.

In 2024, New Hampshire Rep. Jess Edwards said that raising the age of marriage from 16 to 18 would stop people “of ripe, fertile age” from getting married would make “abortion a much more desirable alternative.” And when Wyoming was considering a bill to raise the minimum marriage age to just 16, this is what Republicans told voters in an email:

“Since young men and women may be physically capable of begetting and bearing children prior to the age of 16, marriage MUST remain open to them for the sake of those children.”

This is exactly why that White House proposal to teach ‘menstrual cycle’ lessons in sex ed classes freaked me out. Republicans won’t teach kids about birth control—but they’ll teach them how to get pregnant?

And remember, the policy analyst behind that push is from the Heritage Foundation. It wasn’t so long ago that the group shifted away from decrying teen pregnancies. Now they just oppose the “non-marital teen birth rate.”

So many creeps, so little time.

Title X News

It’s been almost a month since the Trump administration froze tens of millions in Title X funding—money meant for birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing for low-income and uninsured patients. The fallout has been immediate: independent clinics and Planned Parenthood affiliates have been gutted, and seven states are now entirely without Title X support.

The administration claims these are ‘temporary’ freezes based on possible violations of civil rights law. The violations? Well, for one organization, it was that they put out a statement in 2020 opposing racism.

If you need a refresher, we covered it in Abortion, Every Day’s breaking report last month:

BREAKING: The Trump Administration Freezes $35 Million in Title X Funding

But here’s something that hasn’t gotten enough attention: two Republican-led states—Tennessee and Oklahoma—weren’t impacted by the funding freeze. As KFF Health News reports, the administration “quietly restored” their Title X funding despite court rulings that the states weren’t eligible in the first place.

You may remember this: The Biden administration pulled Title X funding from Tennessee and Oklahoma because Republican leaders wouldn’t let health centers tell patients that abortion is legal in other states. The requirement wasn’t anything radical: They just had to share a national hotline with information about all pregnancy options if a patient asked. Those with religious objections could opt-out.

Still, Republican officials refused. When they sued, courts sided with the Biden administration. Now, the Trump administration has restored the states’ funding anyway.

Obviously, I’m relieved that healthcare providers in those states will have their funding restored, and that patients will have the access to care that they need. But I’m very worried about what kinds of groups might get these federal dollars in the future.

Remember, conservatives laid out their Title X playbook in Project 2025. In addition to slashing the program (✅), they want to change who’s eligible for the remaining funds. Specifically, Project 2025 calls for ending “religious discrimination in grant selections”—which is code for giving federal dollars to crisis pregnancy centers and other religious groups that oppose abortion and birth control.

I’ve warned about this before in Abortion, Every Day—and now it’s looking a lot less like a possibility and a lot more like a plan.

At a fundraising gala for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that Trump’s budget bill could be used to “redirect funds away from big abortion and to federally qualified health centers.” We all know what that means.

Right now, Trump’s “big, beautiful” budget bill doesn’t mention Title X—but that could change fast. Anti-abortion groups are also pushing the administration to kick Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid, and Republicans could slip in a provision to block any clinic that provides or even refers for abortion from getting any HHS funding.

We knew Planned Parenthood would be under attack under Trump—but the other half of this assault is about who replaces them. If it’s up to Republicans, it will be fake clinics that don’t offer real care—just religious ideology and shame-based bullshit.

I want to leave you with a little light at the end of this shitty Title X tunnel: Local activists are stepping up in the wake of Trump’s cuts. They shouldn’t have to, but it’s inspiring to see nonetheless.

Take Utah: after losing all Title X funding and watching two Planned Parenthood clinics close, college students are trying to fill the gaps. At Utah State University, Students United for Reproductive Freedom (SURF) are offering fellow students rides to health centers that may be out-of-the-way, and are working to install a campus vending machine stocked with affordable emergency contraception. You love to see it.

“I’m feeling like the people that have the power to protect us really aren’t, so we just have to keep moving along and doing what we think is right. It’s terrifying, but the whole world is terrifying. I feel like just walking down the street these days is terrifying. Someone’s going to whisk you off and accuse you of writing an op-ed or something.”

- ‘Cheryl’, an OBGYN who ships abortion pills to patients in states with bans. (The Guardian)

In the States

Let’s keep talking about the kind of activism we love to see—this time out of Missouri. Today, the youth-focused abortion access organization Right By You (RBY) filed a lawsuit challenging parental consent and notification requirements.

Here’s how RBY director Stephanie Kraft Sheley put it:

“These laws don’t protect youth—they are designed to punish those already in vulnerable situations. This lawsuit is about ensuring young abortion seekers can exercise their right to bodily autonomy, within the legal limits voters approved in November.”

And that’s what makes this case so interesting: It’s the first time a state abortion rights amendment is being used to fight back against forced parental involvement laws. Remember, Missouri passed Amendment 3 in November—which protects abortion rights until ‘viability’. So why wouldn’t young people be entitled to the same protections?

The stakes here go far beyond Missouri. Parental involvement laws are still enforced in many states—including those that have passed abortion rights amendments. That’s in large part because too many Democrats (and even some pro-choice groups) worry that defending abortion access for teens will hand conservatives an easy attack line.

They’re right that it’s a favorite GOP messaging tactic: In the lead-up to every ballot measure fight, anti-abortion groups claimed that pro-choice amendments would eliminate ‘parents’ rights.’ They poured millions into ads warning that kids would be able to get abortions. They even tapped into anti-trans bigotry, saying the measures would allow children to have gender-affirming surgeries without parental consent.

But here’s the thing: They’ll say that no matter what. We saw it in Michigan: Conservatives insisted Proposal 3 would wipe out parental consent. When the measure passed and consent laws remained, they just shifted up their talking points. Now, they said, Democrats were planning to repeal parental consent.

In other words, this attack is coming either way. So why not fight for what young people actually need?

And here’s why it matters so much in states like Missouri: Young people disproportionately represent abortion patients later in pregnancy. And because Amendment 3—like most other amendments—only protects abortion up to 'viability' (an arbitrary, non-medical line), minors are at particular risk.

I’ll have more for you as the suit progresses, but it’s really nice to see proactive, gutsy work.

A new poll shows that only 35% of Florida voters support the state’s 6-week abortion ban. Not that it seems to matter—Gov. Ron DeSantis has been systematically undermining voter power in the state, making it harder for Floridians to weigh in directly on abortion rights and sabotaging the ballot measure process. Last November, Amendment 4—which would have protected abortion until ‘viability’—fell just short of the 60% threshold needed to pass.

That loss followed an aggressive campaign by DeSantis, who spent millions in taxpayer dollars to weaponize state agencies, threaten journalists, and launch a sham voter fraud investigation targeting people who supported Amendment 4.

Now DeSantis is trying to make it even harder for citizen-led initiatives to get on the ballot. Apparently activists got too close to that 60% for comfort.

Meanwhile, NC Health News has a must-read piece on how North Carolina has become an abortion access hub—even with the state’s 12-week ban in place. Katherine Farris, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, says that they’re providing abortions six days a week across the state in order to keep up with the demand.

Farris also says that a lot of the patients they’re seeing are further along in pregnancy because of bans in their home states.

“By the time the patient shows up, for example in South Carolina, they're too far for [the state’s six-week restrictions]. And then by the time they can make it up to North Carolina, jump through all the hurdles here, arrange childcare and do all of the things that they need to do, they may be too far for North Carolina. Then they're trying to get to Virginia … By the time they can come up, several weeks may have passed, and now they're much further along in their pregnancy before they can access their abortion.”

That’s what makes me so furious about Republicans’ moaning about abortions later in pregnancy—it’s their policies that force unnecessary delays on patients!

Speaking of how vital abortion access is later in pregnancy: Earlier this week, I shared the sad news that Dr. Warren Hern was shuttering his Boulder, Colorado clinic after fifty years. Today, Hern spoke to KUNC's “In The NoCo” about his decision to retire and what it’s been like to work under the constant threat of violence.

“We work behind four layers of bulletproof windows,” Hern said. “Five of my medical colleagues have been assassinated.” Listen to his full interview below:

Quick hits:

• The Ohio Capital Journal on the impact Medicaid cuts will have on infant and maternal mortality in Ohio;

• A leak of the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s order accepting a challenge to an 1849 ‘ban’ was likely deliberate, an investigation finds;

• A Utah mom writes about the news that two Planned Parenthood clinics are shuttering—and how afraid she is for her daughter;

• And Jezebel has more on the Missouri AG’s attack against a local abortion fund. (Donate to the Missouri Abortion Fund here!)

In the Nation

One of Donald Trump’s first acts as president was pardoning two dozen violent anti-abortion extremists convicted of violating the FACE Act—the federal law that protects reproductive healthcare clinics. Around the same time, his Department of Justice quietly announced it would stop enforcing that law unless there are “extraordinary circumstances...such as death.”

In other words, anti-abortion activists were given the green light to harass and terrorize clinics, providers, staff and patients—so long as they don’t actually kill someone. (Even then, I don’t have any confidence this administration would do anything.)

Now, in a chilling but not unexpected escalation, a top DOJ official says the agency will be enforcing the FACE Act—but not against violent anti-abortion activists. Instead, they’re going after pro-choice advocates.

In an interview with conservative pundit Glenn Beck, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon claimed the “only violence” being committed lately is against the “rights of speech and prayer” of protesters outside of clinics.

What’s more, she said the DOJ would be “aggressively going after” anyone who ‘attacks’ these protesters or crisis pregnancy centers.

Let’s be clear: the only recent arrests I’m aware of are for activists who spray-painted a few slogans on CPC buildings. But sure—let’s pour federal resources into defending the walls of fake clinics while actual providers face bomb and death threats.

We know what this is really about: In the same way the Trump administration has emboldened anti-abortion extremists on the ground, they’re empowering federal agencies to target pro-choice activists. We’d do well to prepare.

Find out more about violence against abortion providers in the National Abortion Federation’s most recent report.

Quick hits:

• NBC News has a segment on the impact of abortion laws on miscarriage patients;

• Bloomberg reports that mifepristone maker GenBioPro will be able to participate in the multi-state lawsuit against the abortion medication;

• And TIME on what Trump’s first 100 days has meant for reproductive rights.

Coming Tomorrow

We have a lot to talk about in Texas. SB 2880—one of the most dangerous and sweeping anti-abortion bills yet—is advancing quickly through the legislature. And there’s more happening there than is being reported. So keep an eye on your inbox tomorrow for an update.