A review by The Associated Press shows that several of President Donald Trump’s nominees to the federal courts have revealed anti-abortion views, been related to anti-abortion groups or defended abortion restrictions.
Several have helped defend their state’s abortion restrictions in court and a few have been involved in cases with national impact, including on access to medication abortion.
While Trump has said issues related to abortion must be left to the states, the nominees, with lifetime appointments, could be in position to roll back abortion rights long after Trump leaves the White House.
Trump has been inconsistent on abortion
Trump has repeatedly shifted his messaging on abortion, often giving contradictory or vague answers.
Within the years before his most up-to-date presidential campaign, Trump had voiced support for a federal ban on abortion on or after 20 weeks in pregnancy and said he might support a national ban around 15 weeks.
He later settled on messaging that decisions about abortion access must be left to the states.
FILE – President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order referring to clemency for anti-abortion protesters as he signs executive orders within the Oval Office of the White House, Jan. 23, 2025, in Washington.
Ben Curtis/ The Associated Press
Throughout his campaign, Trump has alternated between taking credit for appointing the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade and striking a more neutral tone.
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That’s been an effort to navigate the political divide between his base of anti-abortion supporters and the broader public, which largely supports access to abortion.
Many nominees have anti-abortion backgrounds
One Trump nominee called abortion a “barbaric practice” while one other referred to himself as a “zealot” for the anti-abortion movement.
A nominee from Tennessee said abortion deserves special scrutiny because “that is the one medical procedure that terminates a life.”
One from Missouri spread misinformation about medication abortion, including that it “starves the infant to death within the womb” in a lawsuit aiming to challenge the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone.
Legal experts and abortion rights advocates warn of a methodical remaking of the federal courts in a way that would pose enduring threats to abortion access nationwide.
Bernadette Meyler, a professor of constitutional law at Stanford University, said judicial appointments “are a way of federally shaping the abortion query without going through Congress or making an enormous, explicit statement.”
“It’s a solution to cover up somewhat bit what is going on within the abortion sphere in comparison with laws or executive orders that could be more visible, dramatic and spark more backlash,” she said.
The nominees represent Trump’s ‘guarantees’ to Americans: White House
Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, said “every nominee of the President represents his guarantees to the American people and aligns with the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling.”
“The Democrats’ extreme position on abortion was rejected in November in favor of President Trump’s commonsense approach, which allows states to determine, supports the sanctity of human life, and prevents taxpayer funding of abortion,” Fields said in an announcement to the AP.
Trump focused totally on the economy and immigration during his 2024 campaign, the problems that surveys showed were a very powerful topics for voters.
Anti-abortion groups, abortion rights advocates respond
Anti-abortion advocates say it’s premature to find out whether the nominees will support their objectives but that they’re hopeful based on the names put forth up to now.
“We look ahead to 4 more years of nominees cut from that mold,” said Katie Glenn Daniel, director of legal affairs for the national anti-abortion organization SBA Pro-Life America.
Abortion rights advocates said Trump is embedding abortion opponents into the judiciary one judge at a time.
“This just feeds into this larger strategy where Trump has gotten away with distancing himself from abortion, saying he’s going to go away it to the states, while concurrently appointing anti-abortion extremists in any respect levels of presidency,” said Mini Timmaraju, president of the national abortion rights organization Reproductive Freedom for All.
© 2025 The Canadian Press