The Trump administration got a crystal-clear message as Democrats celebrated the election of at least 10 female governors and more than 100 congresswomen Tuesday, experts said.
“Abortion is a more popular issue than any elected official in this country,” said Rachel O'Leary Carmona, executive director of Women's March and its political action committee, Women's March WIN.
"A supermajority of Americans support abortion."
“In my experience, and in talking with the base, a lot of the motivation and mobilization that has driven the returns for 2026 has been related to backlash around what the states have been doing with abortion, around women dying in parking lots.”
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University identified a possible 9 percent increase in pregnancy-related deaths for women in states with abortion bans, and deaths of women in Georgia and Texas have been investigated for the role abortion ban policies played.
“People, in fact, are tired of it,” O’Leary Carmona said. “Whether or not it was on the ballot, I think it was a referendum about the direction of this country under Trump's leadership, under the MAGA regime's execution of Project 2025.”
When the conservative supermajority Supreme Court overturned the federal constitutional right to an abortion in Roe v. Wade with its 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the decision to protect abortion access fell to the states.
“Folks who are in those communities who have seen and felt the impact of what it means to have an abortion ban living in those states, for those folks who are living in those states, I am absolutely sure that that played into how and who they voted for and who they trusted to represent them at the state and national level,” said Nourbese Flint, president of All* Above All and All* In Action Fund, which is dedicated to empowering voters of color and ending the Hyde Amendment, which bars the use of federal funds to abortions.
Flint said she is celebrating the wins in Missouri, where an amendment that would’ve reinstated an abortion ban was struck down, as well as in Virginia and Nevada, where voters cast their ballots to support constitutional amendments protecting the right to abortion.
“We saw that abortion, for the vast majority of voters, was a deal breaker, a very important issue,” Flint said.
The Democratic sweep of both the House and Senate energized nonprofits like Reproductive Freedom for All, which heavily invested in unseating Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), ”the Senate race where abortion played the biggest role,” said Ryan Stitzlein, vice president of political and government relations at Reproductive Freedom for All.
“It exceeded, I think, even our wildest expectations, and I think you can't really look at it any way other than just a resounding win for abortion access, for reproductive freedom, and rebuke of the Trump administration and the Republicans' anti-abortion agenda,” Stitzlein said.
'Tremendous opportunities'
The election of pro-abortion rights state leaders like Georgia governor-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms and new Democratic trifectas in state legislatures like Arizona, Nevada, Michigan and Pennsylvania will give states the opportunity to protect abortion rights and provide “really tremendous opportunities to undo a lot of the damage that's been done in states and to push back on the actions the Trump administration has taken — and we know will continue to take over the next couple years,” Stitzlein said.
The historic election of women makes sense to Flint, noting that women have been at the forefront of reproductive justice for years.
“Women of color, women in general, have been carrying a mantle on reproductive rights and have been trusted folks on it, and we know that they have been fighting for us, and so I'm not surprised that people trust women, people of color, to represent their needs in Congress,” Flint said.
“I am enthusiastic about how many more women and how many more people of color who are unapologetic about reproductive justice are coming into Congress.”
Though Jackie Payne, founder and executive director of Galvanize Action, a nonpartisan advocacy and research organization focused on connecting with moderate women voters, said the economy was far-and-away the top issue for this group this year, in 2024 abortion was found to be right behind it.
These voters are “pretty hungry for a champion, but not a combatant,” Payne said.
“They do not want to be misunderstood as saying they want a fighter who is just pugilistic and fighting for fighting's sake. They want them to fight for them, but towards solutions.”
'Mollywhopping'
While advocates are optimistic about the Democrats set to take office in January, concerns remain about what the Trump administration will try to do to limit abortion access.
“The administration has been extremely hostile to abortion access and has attempted to do a lot of this behind the scenes, especially with what's been going on with the FDA with this sham review of the authorization of [abortion drug] Mifepristone, and there's reporting that they're purposely withholding some of this until after the election,” Stitzlein said.
“That's why it's going to be so, so crucial to have these checks on the administration in Congress that they'll be able to have oversight … there's so much work to be done because we know that the Trump administration, the anti-abortion extremists, are not going to stop.”
Flint also expressed concerns that the domination by the Democrats might empower some Republicans to fight back on reproductive rights.
“With such a mollywhopping that happened, I don't know if that empowers them to go further in the little time that they have left or to take pause for reservation about where the American public is and actually has been on abortion access, so that's one thing that we're thinking about: what's next?” Flint said.
