The choice: reproductive rights stakes in the 2024 election
The News spoke with physicians, students and activists on how the presidential election could impact reproductive freedoms across America.
Yale Daily News
Throughout the months leading up to election day, reproductive health has been a major issue for voters. According to the News’ electoral survey, abortion access is one of the five most important issues for 60 percent of Yale students.
Physicians at the Yale School of Medicine and students involved in abortion-related access about the upcoming election shared their concerns about how the election may affect reproductive freedom.
Kexin Meng ’23 MED ’27, originally from Arkansas, where abortion is prohibited unless the patient’s life is threatened, said that geography played a major factor in what medical schools she applied to. In states where abortion is heavily restricted, medical schools can have different curricula surrounding reproductive health.
“I think if Trump wins, it’s definitely a much scarier situation. It’s not simply just about abortion care, but also about birth control, contraception and LGBTQ+ care. It’s about medical training for the future as well, in terms of what schools will be able to teach and not be able to teach,” she said. “You see that in a lot of red states already, students aren’t even able to get that kind of training in medical school, and will have to seek it elsewhere.”
Student groups navigate election
At Yale College, several student groups engaged in reproductive and abortion-related activism are considering how the changing political climate could affect their work.
Leaders from multiple student groups told the News that their work on reproductive rights or abortion would not significantly change after the election.
The Yale Women’s Center offers reproductive resources including plan B, pregnancy tests and condoms. The center, which is student-run and was founded in 1970, has engaged throughout its history in abortion rights activism, although the University recently directed the board to maintain neutrality in its programming and actions.
“The Yale Women’s Center works to break down societal gender structures and roles and to ensure women’s right to independence through reproductive freedom, self-determined voices, freedom of sexuality, a full range of health and social services,” the Women’s Center board wrote to the News in a joint statement. “The YWC will continue to advocate for reproductive freedom regardless of the outcome of the election.”
Emma Ventresca ’26, the president of Choose Life at Yale, an anti-abortion organization at Yale, hopes this election has spread awareness of “the right to life as a serious concern” but views “on-the-ground” efforts as vital to the pro-life movement, regardless of the views of the president.
Ventresca also expressed her hope that “each state recognizes the horrors of abortion” and “promotes alternatives … in cases where mothers do not believe they have the resources they need to parent.”
Maddy Corson ’26, the president of YaleBleeds, an organization dedicated to promoting menstrual equity, said that while her organization is focused on promoting access to period products, she believes the upcoming election — and the differing messages of the candidates on women’s healthcare — will affect how her organization engages in its work and activism.
“In the Harris world, I think we will find a much easier time advocating for period products,” she said.
Corson also noted that the issue of menstrual equity has been brought up in this election as some Republicans and supporters of former President Trump have nicknamed Governor Tim Walz “Tampon Tim” due to his work as Minnesota Governor to require public schools to provide menstrual products to students in fourth through 12th grades.
Corson noted that Walz’ work at Minnesota public schools is in line with YaleBleeds’ own mission — to make pads and tampons accessible throughout campus.
Physicians on impacts of abortion bans
Harvey Kliman is the director of the Reproductive and Placental Research Unit at the Yale School of Medicine. He found that 98 percent of pregnancy complications that lead to loss are due to genetic abnormality.
“Why should her life be put in jeopardy because she happens to be carrying a genetically abnormal pregnancy?” Kliman said. He is scared of what would happen to women if the country were to fall under an administration that inherently blames women for their pregnancy losses.
According to a study that Kliman led, one million pregnancies end in miscarriage annually, a loss that occurs prior to 20 weeks of gestation. However, there are over 20,000 pregnancies that end in stillbirth, meaning that the loss occurred after 20 weeks of gestation.
Kliman explained that due to evolutionary developments, the placenta is “so tenacious” that it may survive at the mother’s cost. Strict policies can make it difficult for women to find appropriate care.
“That’s why women are dying because of all these ridiculous laws that basically say you have to be near death,” said Kliman.
For example, in Texas, under The Human Life Protection Act, abortions are only permitted if a mother is “at risk of death” or at “serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.”
Kliman questioned those “near death” policies, as he said eventual stillbirths can be predicted early and complications can be minimized if an abortion is conducted before the woman is near death.
Kliman does pro bono work to help mothers who have been placed in jail due to pregnancy loss. This is not uncommon in red states. He shared a recent case where a woman was jailed for delivering a stillborn because the medical examiner found methamphetamine in the fetus.
“Basically the medical examiner said, ‘Well, I don’t know what the cause is, but it’s possible it could be methamphetamine.’ There’s actually no reality to that. Methamphetamine cannot end a pregnancy,” said Kliman, adding that he has never seen such a case “in a blue state.” Kliman anticipates that should abortion policies nationally shift toward a “near death” restriction, more women would die.
David Seifer, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the Yale School of Medicine, explained that if individual states have their own state laws, families might need to consider policy when considering whether to cryopreserve eggs or embryos.
Seifer also explained how policy differences may affect where a medical school student would want to conduct their obstetrician-gynecologist—or OB-GYN—residency program.
“If you’re an OB-GYN, or a medical student, thinking about an OB-GYN residency, you probably would want to be equipped to take care of all women’s health,” Seifer said. “You’re going to want to do a residency in a blue state where you can learn what is required to save a woman’s life if she’s having a miscarriage.”
For example, this is a problem in Texas, where OBG-YN residents cannot receive complete resident training in some areas. Their medical education is likely to miss training in a dilation and curettage procedure for miscarriage, a “life-saving procedure,” Seifer said.
Meng added that former President Donald Trump’s win could exacerbate these differences in medical training in numerous areas.
Meng and Iris Becene MED ’27 are the student leaders of Yale’s chapter of Medical Students for Choice. Per its website, the organization is “dedicated to integrating equitable and accessible reproductive justice education into the curriculum and works to foster the next generation of reproductive healthcare providers.”
Becene explained that since the Dobbs decision, the focus in their educational curriculum has been on Connecticut as an “abortion safe haven,” with people coming from other states to get abortions here.
She noted that while Connecticut has solid abortion protections, political upheaval on the national level, especially with the current Supreme Court, concerns her. She worries the current court could move to restrict abortion as well as the availability of contraception and fertility treatments
“People are dying, we’re seeing that in places where abortion is restricted, lives are being lost and to think that that could possibly expand to more people is one of the most terrifying things,” Meng added.
In Connecticut, polls are open until 8 p.m. today.