Center for Reproductive Rights

The Center for Reproductive Rights is previewing the Senate confirmation hearings for Trump nominees who pose a threat to reproductive rights. Research, legislative records, public statements, and more can be found at Repro Red Flags: Agency Watch.

Confirmation Hearings This Week: 2/24 - 3/2

February 25: Office of Management & Budget Deputy Director - Dan Bishop*
*Rescheduled from last week

In This Role He Could:

Help make decisions about funding priorities, including funding fake abortion clinics designed to deter patients from having abortions.
Fast track regulations that restrict abortion, including ones that make it easier for law enforcement to access the medical records of abortion patients and defund Title X health clinics.
Assist OMB Director Russell Vought—who is avidly anti-abortion and a coauthor of Project 2025—in carrying out Trump's anti-abortion agenda.

Red Flags:

He is a vocal opponent of abortion, explicitly stating that he thinks "it's wrong to have an abortion in the case of rape or incest."
As a Member of Congress, Bishop recently cosponsored a national abortion ban and a bill that would enshrine fetal personhood into law, which could jeopardize access to abortion and IVF.
As a North Carolina State Senator, Bishop authored discriminatory legislation restricting transgender individuals’ use of public restrooms.

February 26: Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights - Harmeet Dhillon

In This Role She Could:

Refuse to enforce the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a law that protects abortion clinics and patients from violent protesters.
Decide whether or how to enforce Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, a policy that protects patients against discrimination on the basis of sex—including what health insurance will cover and what care doctors will provide.
Allow anyone who works in a hospital—including non-medical staff and CEOs—to prevent doctors from providing reproductive health care services and gender-affirming care based on their own personal religious beliefs.
Refuse to investigate reports of medical, employment, and housing discrimination based on pregnancy status, abortion history, or LGBTQIA identity.

Red Flags:

Dhillon has called herself a "lawyer for the pro-life movement" and personally represented an anti-abortion extremist whose actions incited violence and harassment of abortion providers and advocacy organizations.
She claims that shield laws violate the Constitution. These laws protect abortion providers from prosecution for treating patients from other states.
She and her law firm have been involved in many anti-abortion, anti-transgender, anti-immigration, and election-related lawsuits.

February 26: Solicitor General - Dean John Sauer

In This Role He Could:

Determine the United States’ position on federal lawsuits and side with anti-abortion extremists when they challenge existing policies on abortion pills and contraceptive access.
Act as the lawyer for any federal agency—headed by President Trump's anti-abortion appointees—that attacks reproductive health care policies.
Appeal decisions that block the Trump administration's anti-abortion policies, even escalating them to the Supreme Court.

Red Flags:

Sauer urged the courts to roll back access to abortion pills in the case Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA, which eventually made its way to the Supreme Court.
He represented anti-abortion extremists whose actions incited violence and harassment of abortion providers and advocacy organizations.
He filed multiple well-known anti-reproductive health care cases, including challenging the Title X rule and the city of St. Louis' reproductive equity fund.
As Solicitor General of Missouri, he had a long history of defending abortion restrictions.

February 26: Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy - Aaron Reitz

In This Role He Could:

Recommend anti-abortion extremists for lifetime appointments as federal judges, including to the Supreme Court, and support them during the confirmation process.
Advise the Attorney General—anti-abortion activist Pam Bondi—in attempting to restrict or even ban abortion nationwide, without the approval of Congress, by misusing the Comstock Act.
Oversee internal DOJ policies and priorities, such as decisions about whether to enforce laws that protect abortion providers and patients.

Red Flags:

Reitz calls himself "unequivocally pro-life" and believes that "human life starts at conception, no exceptions."
He served as a fellow for an anti-abortion group that recently asked the Supreme Court to take abortion pills off the market. ADF is designated as an anti-LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
As Texas’ Deputy Attorney General for Legal Strategy, Reitz supported efforts to dismantle abortion access, including challenging access to medication abortion.

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