Abortion Doulas in Trump’s America: What is at Risk?
Since the fall of Roe v. Wade with the Supreme Court’s overruling in the Dobbs decision, the landscape of reproductive justice in the United States has undergone a seismic shift. With increasing state-level restrictions on abortion and attacks on abortion care providers, there has been a resurgence of anti-choice and anti-abortion policies under Donald Trump’s administration. This has led us to question how exactly we can envision the role of community caretakers like abortion doulas in a post-Roe world.
Although Roe was not a perfect solution, it promised birthing people the right to bodily agency as they weighed the different options available to them within the full scope of reproductive justice: the right to have a child, the right to not have a child, and the right to raise a child in a safe and sustainable environment. However, as we witness the reversal of policies like this through right-wing propaganda, access to safe and legal abortions has become more precarious than ever1.
Trump’s presidency is a result of a deepening far-right movement that has prioritized the commodification of bodies and benefited from the control of agency as a means of sustaining marginality. From his first term, we have already seen aggressive rollbacks in reproductive rights, and his return to office has only intensified these attacks. The promotion of policies like the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the pregnant person is in danger, creates a false sense of governmental concern about pregnancy termination while simultaneously co-opting women’s rights to personal health disclosures, essentially rendering their bodies subject to government control2. Imagine having to explain the intricacies of your bodily functions to people you do not know, only for them to decide whether you can be criminalized for your personal decisions. This is the situation we leave pregnant people in.
For decades, the anti-abortion movement has been focused on regulation and control over birthing people’s bodies. Its supporters demand access, fundamentally believing that the “life” birthing people bring into the world is a spectacle for the community and a potential worker the government cannot pass up3. And with Trump eager to follow in the footsteps of other far-right politicians like Ronald Reagan, we have seen increased support for dangerous policies like the Global Gag Rule, which prevents foreign organizations receiving U.S. global health assistance from providing information or services for legal abortions or advocating for abortion access, even with their own money. During his first term, Trump reinstated and, in fact, expanded the Global Gag Rule to include restrictions on HIV/AIDS care, contraception, and maternal health. This development dangerously targets and diminishes diminishing comprehensive reproductive
health care beyond the Americas as a colonial authority across many other nations, souring their own notions about abortions and abortion care4.
In this hostile climate, where misinformation and political narrativization have become essential tools for dehumanizing women and restricting their choices in family planning, community-based interventions like abortion doulas must be considered essential providers of critical emotional and informational support to those seeking options and abortions5.
Abortion doulas are community-centered, non-medical professionals who provide emotional, physical, and informational support to people seeking an abortion, assisting them before, during, and after the procedure. Abortion care is deeply connected to the long history of Black women providing reproductive care through mutual aid and community-based organizing in response to systemic racism in maternal healthcare6. During enslavement, Black midwives were central figures in reproductive care, often assisting in self-managed abortions. Enslaved women relied on traditional herbal knowledge and midwifery practices to control their own reproduction, engaging in radical, autonomous resistance against forced breeding and sexual violence.
Later in Black history, as medical institutions sought to professionalize obstetrics, Black midwives, who had been pillars of their communities, were discredited and systematically removed from reproductive care due to their advocacy for patient well-being, personal agency, and reproductive liberation. This exclusion led to increased medical racism, forced sterilizations, and a lack of access to safe abortion services for Black women, further subjecting them to rape-centered, heteropatriarchal violence7. Black birth workers and reproductive justice advocates have long been involved in abortion care, even before the term “abortion doula” became common. Through the imagination and organizing efforts of Black women, abortion work has long been considered part of the fight for intersectional reproductive justice advocacy.
A Black feminist perspective of empathy reminds us that sometimes, people just need support. In moments of personal crisis, we may question our “goodness” as members of a hegemonic society, feeling as though we have failed the final test of socialization. Abortion doulas and birth workers remind us that empathy is an intellectual and interdisciplinary framework that can transform communities, setting an example of culturally competent care for marginalized groups,
particularly Black women, who often face barriers to reproductive healthcare due to oppressive medical institutions and restrictive abortion laws8.
This leads us to our current reality: We have a white, wealthy, cis-hetero, man in office operating under far-right politics that seek to reinstate government control over people’s bodies. Which is only further subjugating women to institutional violence that upholds male domination, and, by extension, all other systems of oppression. This perspective offered to us by feminists that believe this is through the patriarchy’s role as the cornerstone of the isms. Trump’s violent endorsement of extreme anti-abortion state laws has further marginalized individuals in need of care. His targeting of community-based interventions has emboldened right-wing groups to fight against domestic birth workers, including doulas, midwives, and abortion doulas. These groups exploit vulnerable individuals as political ammunition, patronizing their decisions on a national scale and creating a social paradox in which any resistance to the loss of autonomy is met with shame, including the work of abortion doulas, which directly challenges their ideology.
Unlike medical providers, abortion doulas focus entirely on the patient’s well-being, validating their experiences in a world where abortion stigma remains pervasive. Since the overturning of Roe, more than a dozen states have enacted total or near-total abortion bans, forcing many individuals to seek care out of state or explore self-managed abortions. These restrictions disproportionately impact marginalized communities, raising the question of whether we should return to community-based birth workers like abortion doulas.
The role that abortion doulas take on as caretakers has become indispensable in this new reality. By providing support to abortion patients, they challenge the status quo surrounding personal agency, reinforcing the power of community as people take action regarding their own bodies. Fundamentally, they ensure that people are not alone, a radical approach to community care. When someone has a baby, it is a community effort. Similarly, when someone has an abortion, it is also a community effort. And that building of community trust, respect, and care stands in direct opposition to far-right talking points that promote isolation and individualism, using shame as the primary tactic to keep people alone.
As anti-abortion legislation continues to gain traction, the need for abortion doulas will only grow, alongside the attacks on their roles. However, their work remains necessary, even as it comes with risks. In states where abortion has been criminalized, doulas and community members who assist in abortion care may face legal repercussions. Expanding legal protections for abortion support networks and increasing doula programs are crucial steps in ensuring reproductive autonomy for all. The fight for reproductive justice extends beyond policy, it is about community care as radical resilience. In a post-Roe world, abortion doulas are not just support figures; they are frontline advocates in the fight for bodily autonomy. They provide a glimpse into a better world, an
imagination of what community-centered abortion care can look like, even in the face of political adversity. They serve as a reminder that when our ancestors had no way, they made one together. Investing in and uplifting their work is an urgent necessity for the future of reproductive rights.
I call for us all to support community centered advocates, like abortion doulas, more than ever. We can do this by educating ourselves with training materials from Advocates for Youth and supporting grassroots reproductive justice organizations like Sistersong and Sisterlove. By spreading awareness about abortion doulas who work in clinical settings, such as Planned Parenthood, we can actively rebuild community support for birth workers.
1 Reproductive Freedom for All. "Here’s How Trump Attacked Reproductive Freedom During His First Week in Office." January 27, 2025. https://reproductivefreedomforall.org/news/25432/.
2 NPR. "Being an Abortion Doula in a Post-Roe World: Consider This." July 28, 2022. Link
