The national right-wing attack on elected district attorneys has merged with the Republican project to criminalize abortion.

After the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in the landmark case Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization, many Republican dominated state governments quickly moved to ban all or some abortions. Many of the populous cities in these state, however, are dominated by Democratic Party politics. In those cities, elected prosecutors pledged not to prosecute reproductive care, setting up a clash with state-level governments.

The clash came first in Florida, where in 2022, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis became the first state official to suspended an elected prosecutor who said they would not charge people who sought abortions. In January, a three-judge federal appeals circuit panel said DeSantis’s decision to suspend Former States Attorney Andrew Warren violated First Amendment provisions for protected speech, including Warren’s comments on protecting abortion and transgender care.

Since then, at least five states have introduced legislative measures to strip power from elected prosecutors who have made similar pledges. Over the last two years, Republicans in Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, South Carolina, and Texas have introduced or passed legislation making it easier to prosecute people who seek abortions.

“As reproductive health care became criminalized in the wake of........

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