Trump’s gender executive order uses language pointing to ‘fetal personality’ | Donald Trump

One of Donald Trump’s new executive orders, which claims there are only two genders, quietly incorporates the principles of fetal personhood – the legal doctrine, pushed by the anti-abortion movement, that life begins at conception and that embryos and fetuses therefore deserve all legal rights. and protections.

“‘Female’ means a person belonging, at the time of conception, to the sex which produces the large reproductive cell,” reads the order, issued just hours after Trump took office on Monday. “’Male’ designates a person belonging, at conception, to the sex which produces the small reproductive cell. »

The words “from conception” set off alarm bells among abortion rights supporters. If fully adopted, fetal personhood would have far-reaching implications for all U.S. laws; not only would it ban abortion nationwide, but it could even cause governments to view abortion as murder and treat people who undergo the procedure as murderers.

“I don’t think it was a mistake. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I think it was an intentional way to continue to normalize the idea that embryos are people,” said Dana Sussman, senior vice president of Pregnancy Justice, a reproductive justice group that tracks efforts to enroll fetal personality in the law.

“This is another attempt at codification in one form or another.”

During the campaign, Trump vacillated between taking credit for engineering the conservative Supreme Court majority that overturned Roe v Wade and claiming he did not want to implement a national abortion ban . But the 2024 Republican platform discussed fetal personhood, emphasizing Republicans’ commitment to “the question of life” and suggesting that fetuses were included in the 14th Amendment’s guarantee that “no person shall be denied life or freedom without due process.”

Proponents of fetal personhood hope to ultimately bring a case to the Supreme Court that will lead the justices to declare that the 14th Amendment applies from the moment of conception. (The 14th Amendment also protects the birthright of citizenship, which Trump is now trying to end.)

Mary Ziegler, a professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law who studies the legal history of reproduction, emphasized that the executive order did not establish new protections or legal status for embryos and embryos. fetus.

“It’s unclear whether this is Trump moving down the path of much bolder action on abortion or IVF or whether it’s simply Trump throwing anti-abortion insiders a bone than most readers wouldn’t necessarily understand,” said Ziegler, who studies legal history. reproduction.

But she added: “It’s always a big deal when you have something, a seed like that, planted in a federal law that maybe someone could make something out of later.” »

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In the weeks and days before Trump returned to the White House, abortion rights supporters feared that the new president would take steps to cut off access to the procedure, such as using a law 19th century anti-vice to prohibit mailing. abortion-related equipment or ordering the FDA to reverse its approval of a common abortion pill.

So far, Trump has yet to take decisive action on this issue. However, his administration apparently took down the website reproductiverights.gov, which contained information about access to abortion pills and abortion coverage.