With Election Day just hours away, let’s call it like it is: America has become a place where pregnant women are treated as untouchables. That’s exactly what I said on Ayman Mohyeldin’s show this weekend on MSNBC, as he dedicated two segments to the tragic realities unfolding from Trump’s abortion restrictions.
Through relentless bans and restrictions, Donald Trump and his powerful allies have crafted a caste system that sidelines the rights and health of pregnant women, putting them at serious risk. Rather than protecting our most vulnerable, we’re actively endangering them.
When I talk to male voters and tell them that Trump’s abortion bans kill women, they don’t believe me. And yet, just this week, we learned of two women in Texas who lost their lives because of Trump-backed abortion bans. The first, a teenager named Nevaeh Crain, began bleeding and vomiting uncontrollably at her baby shower and was rushed to the ER—only to be turned away. She was forced to seek care at two additional hospitals before doctors finally treated her for sepsis, a life-threatening infection. Yet, because of Texas’ restrictive abortion ban, which threatens doctors with jail time, they couldn’t perform the life-saving abortion she desperately needed. Nevaeh died from organ failure as her mother screamed, “Do something.”
Tragically, her story echoes that of Josseli Barnica, another woman who also died after Texas hospital staff informed her that intervening in her miscarriage would be a “crime.”
Let’s be clear about what’s happening: In Trump’s America, pregnant women have become a lower class—no longer prioritized, their health and autonomy dismissed in the pursuit of a political agenda that treats them as second-class citizens. In states enforcing Trump’s abortion bans, hospitals are refusing to treat women with life-threatening pregnancy complications, fearing legal repercussions for providing what should be standard medical care. Instead of safeguarding these women, we’re watching them slip through the cracks, many suffering, and some even dying. And, of course, those who bear the brunt of these bans are overwhelmingly Black and Brown women, and women who are already struggling financially.
Experts in health policy, like Sara Rosenbaum, are sounding the alarm. “Pregnant women have become essentially untouchables,” she said, underscoring that a caste-like hierarchy is forming in the U.S., with pregnant women at the very bottom. And this isn’t hyperbole. In Texas, for example, pregnancy-related deaths have surged by 56% since abortion restrictions took hold. Giving birth has always been far more dangerous than having an abortion, yet instead of safeguarding women’s health, Trump is eroding it.
This hierarchy isn’t just a risk to women; it’s a moral failure for men as well. Despite Trump’s rhetoric, most men don’t support these bans. In fact, 61% believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. But under Trump’s influence, we’ve seen a crisis in masculinity emerge, not driven by feminism, but by men like him, who reinforce harmful stereotypes and push women further into oppression. Men have been cast as accomplices to a system they didn’t ask for and, in many cases, don’t believe in.
That’s exactly what I wanted to demonstrate with my stunt in front of City Hall in Philadelphia this weekend. I stood outside for hours holding a sign that read, “Dear men, tell me why you should control my body,” and not a single man stopped to say that he believed laws should work that way. This experience drove home a critical truth: Trump’s abortion bans are distorting our perception of how men actually feel about controlling women’s bodies. Most men value freedom and autonomy and want no part in restricting women’s choices. Trump’s policies don’t represent the beliefs of most men—they reflect the agendas of a few, imposing a caste system that neither men nor women want.
For the undecided men out there, now is the time to stand against this caste system, to reject policies that harm the women they care about, and to protect the rights and safety of all.
This caste system isn’t just setting women back—it’s setting us all back. Trump’s abortion bans aren’t about saving lives; they’re about controlling them. And if we let him succeed, we’ll be living in an America where pregnant women remain at the bottom of a deeply dangerous hierarchy.
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Pregnant Women Are America’s Untouchables