2025’s fight for life targeted abortion pills, Planned Parenthood funding, and assisted suicide’s expansion
(WORLD) The year is coming to a close amid heightened tensions in the fight to end abortion in the United States. While the Trump administration has stripped back many policies left by former President Joe Biden, it has yet to roll back a COVID-era provision that removed the requirement for a woman to have an in-person appointment before being prescribed abortion drugs. While some pro-life advocates are fighting on Capitol Hill to protect women and babies from abortion pills, others are sounding the alarm about the slippery slope posed by assisted suicide’s growth. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood has fought to regain its federal Medicaid funding after the Big Beautiful Bill cut off the abortion provider for one year.
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Abortion pill scrutiny
In April, researchers at the Ethics and Public Policy Center published an analysis of insurance claims data from women who took the abortion drug mifepristone. According to the report, close to 11% of those women experienced serious adverse events within 45 days of taking the pill, far exceeding the rate of 0.5% reported by the Food and Drug Administration. The staggering data gained national attention and prompted lawmakers and pro-life advocates to press the new administration to conduct its own review of the drug and to reexamine the lax protections surrounding its accessibility. Another investigation, conducted by the National Right to Life, alleged that complications related to the abortion pill may be underreported because women have been advised not to tell emergency room doctors that they took the drug.
Meanwhile, states across the country renewed lawsuits against the FDA over its decision to remove safeguards around the drug. Some states sued Planned Parenthood, claiming the group falsely claimed mifepristone is safer than it is, and Texas passed a law allowing citizens to sue companies and individuals who traffic chemical abortion drugs into the state. Other lawmakers have suggested the widespread use of mifepristone could damage the environment and are urging federal regulators to test for signs of the drug in water systems.
Planned Parenthood’s funding fight
This summer, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld South Carolina’s right to withhold state Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood. About a week later, President Donald Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included a one-year provision to block federal Medicaid funds from going to nonprofit organizations that perform abortions and received more than $800,000 in Medicaid payments in 2023.
Planned Parenthood swiftly challenged the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, kicking off a legal back-and-forth as judges weighed in on whether or not the defunding provision was constitutional. Several lower courts ruled against the measure, but a federal appeals court panel in mid-December reinstated the funding freeze. As the legal battle raged on, the abortion giant claimed the funding cuts were to blame for dozens of its facilities closing.
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Abortion coercion
As conversations surrounding the dangers of mifepristone swirled, pro-life and women’s advocacy groups sounded the alarm that easy access to abortion pills could make it easier for men to force women to kill their unborn babies. In August, a woman in Texas sued the abortion pill provider Aid Access and her former boyfriend, claiming he ordered the pills online and snuck them into her drink, killing their unborn child against her will. Multiple women have said they were coerced or unknowingly forced to abort their babies. Online abortion groups do little to confirm the identity or pregnancy status of someone ordering the deadly drugs, which many say allows abusers to easily obtain them.
In Louisiana, a grand jury in January indicted a woman who allegedly ordered abortion drugs online and pressured her pregnant daughter to take them. Her daughter, a minor at the time, reportedly wanted to keep her baby. The state indicted and tried to extradite New York abortionist Margaret Carpenter for prescribing the drugs, but New York Gov. Kathy Hochul refused to sign the extradition order.
Doorways to death
This year, three states took steps that many say eroded protections for vulnerable Americans. In May, Delaware became the 11th state to legalize medically assisted suicide. Then this month, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a similar bill after it unexpectedly landed on his desk following a special session in the state Senate. Days later, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she had reached an agreement with state lawmakers to amend an assisted suicide bill that the New York Legislature is expected to pass in 2026. The amendment, she said, would add more guardrails to ensure only state residents could qualify for the deadly drugs and that anyone requesting them be evaluated by a psychologist or psychiatrist. While proponents of assisted suicide claim the parameters set out in these laws will safeguard patients from being pressured to kill themselves, others argue the states are on a slippery slope that often results in loosened protections.
Editor's note: This article originally appeared in the December 30, 2025, issue of WORLD Magazine. Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2025 WORLD News Group. All rights reserved. To read more Biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires, call (828) 435-2981 or visit wng.org.
