A provocative new executive order issued by President Donald Trump in his first hours back in office is generating intense scrutiny and concern among reproductive rights advocates. The order, which asserts there are only two genders, male and female, quietly incorporates language associated with the controversial legal concept of “fetal personhood”—raising fears it could be a first step toward sweeping national restrictions on abortion.
The two brief sentences defining gender in Trump’s order have set off alarm bells: “‘Female’ means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell,” it states. “‘Male’ means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.” By including the words “at conception,” the order seems to gesture toward the anti-abortion movement’s efforts to establish full legal rights and protections for embryos and fetuses from the moment of fertilization.
“I don’t think it was a mistake. I don’t think it was a coincidence. I think this 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 enshrine fetal personhood into law. “This is yet another attempt to codify it in one form or another.”
The Implications of Fetal Personhood
If the concept of fetal personhood were to gain legal standing, it would have monumental impacts on reproductive rights in the United States. Not only could it provide a basis for banning all abortions nationwide, under any circumstances, but in theory, it could even open the door to charging people who end their pregnancies with murder. The idea directly challenges the foundations of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to abortion up until fetal viability.
Fetal personhood has long been a primary goal of the anti-abortion movement, which hopes to ultimately bring a case to the Supreme Court that would allow the justices to rule that fetuses are protected under the 14th Amendment from the moment of conception. That same amendment also enshrines birthright citizenship—which Trump is now seeking to end through other means.
Mixed Signals from the Trump Administration
During his 2024 campaign, President Trump often gave inconsistent messages on his plans for abortion policy. At times, he took credit for appointing the Supreme Court majority that overturned Roe v. Wade. But at other points, he claimed he did not support a national abortion ban. Still, the GOP platform’s language around “the issue of life” and assertions that fetuses deserve 14th Amendment protections hint at a broader anti-abortion agenda.
It’s unclear if this is Trump starting down a road towards much bolder steps on abortion or IVF or if this is just Trump throwing anti-abortion insiders a bone that most readers wouldn’t necessarily understand.
– Mary Ziegler, UC Davis law professor
While the executive order does not actually codify any new embryonic or fetal rights, experts warn that even seemingly minor policy language can open the door to major impacts down the line. “It’s always a big deal when you have something, a seed like that, planted in federal law that someone could maybe make something out of later,” noted Ziegler.
A Continuing Battle Over Reproductive Rights
In the run-up to Trump’s inauguration, many reproductive rights supporters worried that his administration would take immediate, aggressive action to restrict abortion access—such as invoking obscure laws to prohibit mailing abortion pills or directing the FDA to rescind its approval of medication abortion.
So far, such drastic moves have not materialized. However, the Trump administration did quietly take down reproductiverights.gov, a government site providing resources on abortion care and coverage. And advocates emphasize that the language embedded in this week’s executive order demonstrates that the threats to bodily autonomy are far from over.
As the battle over reproductive rights continues, all sides will be watching closely to see if this order foreshadows bolder efforts to enshrine fetal personhood into policy—and the potentially immense consequences that could follow. For now, two words tucked into a broader directive have provided an ominous glimpse of the fights still to come.
