With support for abortion rights at an all-time high, President Donald Trump has been mighty quiet about his opposition to reproductive freedom. It seems a safe bet that the president is keeping the merciless anti-abortion movement at arms’ length until after the midterms, when it would be more politically expedient to embrace it.

And the president, who appointed the Supreme Court justices who brought down Roe in his first administration, will have numerous opportunities to continue his alignment with the anti-abortion movement. The US Supreme Court recently upheld a stay request from Trump’s Food and Drug Administration, which had been granted by a federal judge in Louisiana and then appealed by the state of Louisiana, preserving access to telemedicine abortion, for now. Brought by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, the case sought to reimpose a pre-Covid requirement mandating abortion patients to visit a clinic in person for mifepristone, the medication that would terminate their pregnancy. Although abortion is currently banned in Louisiana and there are no clinics providing abortions within the state’s borders, a decision in its favor would have halted telemedicine abortion nationwide.

But in keeping telemedicine abortion available, the court didn’t rule that mifepristone is safe; it punted. The Trump appointee who ruled in the case before the Supreme Court weighed in wrote that “ultimately it is FDA, not this Court, that possesses the expertise to evaluate scientific evidence and make public health judgments.” In doing so, it handed the question to a federal administration that has every political incentive to challenge the clear science behind medication abortion. Despite former FDA commissioner Marty Makary’s requesting that the agency delay a safety review of mifepristone until “after the midterm elections,” an anonymous FDA official recently confirmed that the department was moving ahead with its investigation. The timing of the results are less clear, but my guess is it will not be before the midterms.

This goal is clear: Manage the Republican Party’s exposure to its opposition to all abortion, one of the most unpopular stances it takes.

Nationwide, telemedicine abortion now accounts for more than 30 percent of all safe abortions. It is popular and effective. And that is precisely why it is under coordinated attack as the number of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics have declined significantly.

Louisiana’s push to reinstate in-person dispensing requirements for mifepristone—after the state had already reclassified the medication as a controlled substance—has nothing to do with patient safety. Mifepristone has been FDA-approved for over 25 years, with a safety record backed by decades of national and international research. Requiring patients to come pick up medications in person is simply a way to create more barriers to access and, in many cases, to expose patients to anti-abortion clinic protesters attempting to harass them into a different decision.

The attack on mifepristone is just one of many recent attempts to eliminate telemedicine abortion access since Roe was overturned four years ago. Consider the state-level assaults on telemedicine shield laws, which allow providers in states where abortion is legal to treat patients in states where abortion is banned. Louisiana’s attorney general has tried to extradite a California physician for allegedly providing telemedicine abortion care under California’s shield law. Governor Gavin Newsom refused. In New York, Governor Kathy Hochul similarly stood strong for the state’s shield law when faced with a similar request. A court clerk in New York likewise used the state’s shield law to stop a civil suit. We need more states to join the eight that have successfully implemented shield laws so far.

Meanwhile, the same Louisiana AG appeared before a US Senate hearing to question mifepristone’s safety, all while simultaneously celebrating the closure of two Planned Parenthood clinics in her state, despite the fact that those clinics had never offered abortion services. They did, however, provide crucial preventive care to patients who now have fewer options for screenings to detect cervical cancer, contraception, and sexual health education, among other resources.

In other states, women are facing criminal charges for suspected abortions. In March, a woman in Georgia was charged with murder for allegedly ending her own pregnancy even though doing so is never a crime. In Kentucky, another woman was charged with fetal homicide for an alleged self-managed abortion, despite a state law explicitly exempting pregnant women from that charge. The charge was eventually dropped under public pressure, but the criminalization risk to women seeking abortion care, particularly in states where care is banned, remains.

We are also witnessing abortion opponents disingenuously wrap their anti-women policies in wellness language under this administration. Safe contraceptives are recast as “chemicals.” Unprotected sex becomes “natural.” President Trump nominated a wellness influencer for surgeon general who called contraception a “disrespect for life.” It’s the old religious ideology, repackaged for a modern audience.

The harmful ramifications of disregarding science remain the same, and it’s women and girls who most suffer the consequences of unplanned parenthood, life-altering maternal outcomes, and preventable sexually transmitted infections.

So while the administration appears reluctant to further undermine abortion rights before the midterms, it may just be a matter of time before administration officials reverse course.

That’s why the abortion-rights movement must keep building and moving forward.

We need more states to pass telemedicine shield laws, more legislators willing to put patient privacy protections on the books, and more governors to stand up for abortion access. The midterm elections will determine whether anti-abortion politicians can take away genuine choice at the state, local, and federal levels. Let’s not forget for a second that in a post-Roe world, we need to be vigilant every day, to the midterms… and beyond.