'We can work with him': Abortion opponents tentatively embrace Trump, and pro-choice RFK Jr.

Anti-abortion activists are elated about Donald Trump’s return to power despite annoyances with the president-elect's lack of appetite for national restrictions.

Now, they are cautiously optimistic, looking ahead to what his administration might do for their movement.

“President Trump has said, loudly, that he doesn't believe abortion is a federal issue – something I deeply disagree with him on,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America. “However, we can work with him.”

Though a national abortion ban is probably off the table, Hawkins and others say they are still hopeful about other steps they have in mind for Trump and his Cabinet, such as eliminating government funding for Planned Parenthood. But anti-abortion advocates also have expressed skepticism about some of Trump's other moves, including the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a former Democrat who holds what they view as more lenient positions on abortion, to be his secretary of Health and Human Services.

As a 2024 candidate, Trump said repeatedly that he would not sign a national abortion ban, adding last month in a Truth Social post that he “would, in fact, veto it.”

Instead, Trump has said he supports individual states setting their own restrictions. The issue returned to the states when in 2022 the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that provided a constitutional right to abortion.

“I was able to kill Roe v. Wade,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post last May. He has repeatedly touted his judicial appointments that put a majority conservative Supreme Court bench in place.

Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, leaned heavily into talk of reproductive freedom and women's issues while campaigning this year. After all, the party had notched several wins in the 2022 midterm elections, fresh off the Supreme Court's controversial decision.

As a stand-alone issue, abortion continued to fare generally well: Of the 10 states that proposed a related ballot measure, voters in seven approved the constitutional amendment to enshrine abortion access. But these same states simultaneously rejected Democratic candidates, like Harris, who advocated for and sometimes centered their campaigns on abortion rights.

“This election proves that abortion was not the silver bullet Democrats thought it would be,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement commending Trump for his win.

Instead, 2024 proved to be a success for Trump’s party: Republicans took over the Senate and held on to the House. With a red trifecta at his disposal, Trump could have a relatively clear path to advancing his legislative agenda.

And leaders in the anti-abortion movement say they’ll be pushing to make sure their priorities are included.

Will there be a national abortion ban under Trump?

The prospect of a national abortion ban was talk of the 2024 presidential race, especially as Harris and other Democrats went after Trump by arguing that he would in fact sign a federal limit.

Trump, though, maintained support for leaving the question to individual states, and his positioning became the banner disagreement between Trump and groups like SBA Pro-Life and Students for Life.

“We see a path for a strong agenda with the Trump administration, and I do see a path forward,” Hawkins said. But “I don't think the pro-life movement will get everything it wants with the Trump administration.”

That includes national regulation, which would struggle to surmount the 60-vote threshold in a 53-47 Republican majority Senate. And with several GOP lawmakers echoing Trump’s state-by-state stance, the likelihood of a federal proposal is even more dubious.

“I think it's inappropriate for us to have a national abortion ban. And I know this is controversial,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., noting his own “pro-life” record in politics.

“And I think for those who want to overreach on this, then they're putting unborn lives at risk for overreaching,” Tillis said. “You've got to know your electorate, you've got to know the issues, and you've got to save babies one life at a time, and you do that by getting policies right at the state level.”

Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump's transition team, did not respond directly to a question about Trump's willingness to enact a federal abortion limit but said in a statement: “The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail. He will deliver.”

What else do abortion opponents want? Defunding Planned Parenthood to start

There are still plenty of other agenda items abortion opponents say they can work on with the president-elect and allies in Congress.

Their priorities include cutting off government funding to Planned Parenthood. The abortion provider, which offers other services related to sexual health, including STD testing and treatment, received more than $1 billion in government funding from 2019 to 2021.

Also on their wish lists are pardons for anti-abortion activists sentenced to prison for blockading and invading clinics, and reversing FDA approval for abortion medication.

“The fact that we have pro-life majorities in Congress is a huge opportunity,” said Lila Rose, an anti-abortion activist and founder and president of Live Action. “I hope that it's not wasted.”

The Trump administration also could undo much of the Biden administration’s work on reproductive rights.

Examples include a recent proposal to make over-the-counter birth control free, as well as Biden’s executive order in August 2022 to support people who travel out of state for an abortion. The order at the time directed the secretary of Health and Human Services to consider “all appropriate actions” to expand reproductive health care access.

RFK Jr. gets tepid welcome from anti-abortion groups

Under Trump, HHS is expected to operate with a different approach, starting with the president-elect's pick for secretary.

Trump tapped Kennedy, a former presidential candidate turned ally, to helm the department. A notorious vaccine skeptic, Kennedy’s nomination caused a stir among Democrats. Kennedy also has drawn ire from abortion opponents, who have scrutinized his comparatively lenient abortion position.

Kennedy has said he believes terminations later in pregnancies should be the decision of the woman, not politicians. He has since amended that to say he supports legalizing abortions up to the point of viability, or the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb.

Rose called this stance “barbaric and inhumane.”

“The fact that Mr. Kennedy's position on abortion shifted this year, from supporting abortion through all nine months to supporting abortion through about 22 weeks, shows that he can change his mind when presented with the facts,” Rose said in a statement.

Were he to get the job, Kennedy would be in position to help lead the Trump administration's reproductive health care agenda, with authority to take measures such as limiting access to the abortion medication mifepristone.

Republican senators, who would be the ones to confirm Kennedy, say they expect Kennedy to take his marching orders from Trump.

“He serves at the pleasure of the president,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. “You don’t get to be an independent thinker in the Cabinet. That’s not that job. That job is you serve the administration, and I assume that’s why he wants the job.” 

USA TODAY staff writer Sudiksha Kochi contributed to this report.

This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Abortion opponents celebrate Trump win, plot agenda with Republicans