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With a decidedly anti-choice Trump administration taking office at its start, 2025 was poised to be yet another brutal year for abortion rights. Advocates feared the imminent resurgence of the Comstock Act, an 1873 law that made it a criminal offense to share contraceptives, abortifacients, and information about either across state lines or through the mail.

As of now, the last month of this very difficult political year, that is yet to happen.

It feels disingenuous (and dehumanizing, I would argue) to tally “wins” and “losses” for something as fundamental to our personhood as the right to an abortion. But in a year like this, it’s impossible. The only narrative for abortion that emerges from this bizarre and horrifying year appears to be chaos.

Chaos can feel haphazard by nature. But it can also be leveraged strategically, a means of catching the opposition off guard and rendering them incapable of responding with any certainty. While Project 2025, the playbook for this hostile and authoritarian administration, does contain specific provisions on how to limit and even ban abortion, many of those haven’t happened yet. That seems odd, considering that half of Project 2025 has already been completed, according to trackers.

But perhaps, like abortion opponents have done for decades, the Trump administration is now playing the long game. Immediately banning abortion would be extremely unpopular, since nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Medication abortion has become the primary political battleground for abortion access.

Because it can be prescribed from safe states........

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