‘The Gloves Are Off’: The Republican Plan to Attack Abortion Now That Trump Is in Office

“It’s not about just making abortion illegal. It’s about making it unthinkable,” one GOP House member said.

Anti-abortion activists in March for Life 2020.

Thursday’s legislation represents a departure from anti-abortion bills Republicans have passed in recent years. Evan Vucci/AP

To mark last year’s March for Life, House Republicans voted on two anti-abortion bills. But those bills didn’t restrict abortion on a federal level, and Speaker Mike Johnson avoided saying the word “abortion” altogether at the 2024 march — to avoid political backlash ahead of a tight election.

But Democrats’ hoped-for backlash to anti-abortion legislation never came. And as the first March for Life under President Donald Trump’s second term gets underway, Republicans are ready to talk about their anti-abortion beliefs and legislation as loudly and as often as they want to.

“The gloves are off,” Rep. Tim Burchett told NOTUS. “I think we know what the truth is.”