Donald Trump, Abuser-in-Chief: Part Two

Shortly after JD Vance was named Donald Trump’s running mate, I posited that a vote for the GOP ticket was unto itself an act of violence against women. I got some pushback from folks who thought my statement was hyperbolic.

I didn’t think it was hyperbolic then and I sure don’t think so now.

In this post, I want to connect some dots. Dots that all eventually lead back to the extremists that surround and are emboldened by Trump. Dots that that are not one off incidents or policies, but in my mind part of a much larger pattern that will not just subjugate women, but literally erase their stories from the public narrative. For too long — forever really — larger society has treated violence against women as private issues, crimes of passion, and isolated occurrences. Think of all the times a woman is murdered by her partner and law enforcement releases a statement that is some variation of “this was an isolated incident and there is no danger to the general public”.

Since when are women not a part of the general public?

. . . .

I will start with some data that many are surprised to learn. If you ask random people what is the leading cause of death for pregnant and postpartum people they will likely guess pre-eclampsia or some other medical diagnosis. They would be incorrect. The leading cause of death for pregnant and postpartum people is homicide. Yes, homicide. Most often at the hands of a current or former partner and in the majority of cases with a gun as the weapon. As a former advocate for domestic violence survivors that now works in gun violence prevention, this is where all of my life’s work comes together: the lethal intersection of domestic violence and easy access to guns.

And now, a Trump/Vance administration will enable a whole host of other policies and practices that will further exacerbate the danger. These policies are all unto themselves scary, but together they will create a whole new level of risk.

Of course, there are abortion bans. Any efforts to take bodily autonomy away from people, from abortion restrictions to anti-trans legislation, put those targeted individuals at greater risk of harm. After all, what does safety look like when you don’t even have power over what happens to your body? Abortion is also a domestic violence issue. A pregnancy and subsequent child ties someone to their abusive partner. Abusers will often engage in reproductive coercion to cause the unwanted pregnancy that keeps their victim tied to them. If you are not familiar with the term reproductive coercion, it means attempting to control or influence a person's reproductive choices or autonomy. It can include forcing someone to have unprotected sex, tampering with their birth control, or pressuring them to keep an unwanted pregnancy. In my mind, abortion bans are state sanctioned reproductive coercion, forcing pregnant people not just to carry pregnancies they didn’t want, but mandating coparenting with their abuser or rapist. Abortion is a domestic violence issue, and domestic violence is an abortion issue.

I, being me, must talk about guns and gun violence. Trump and Vance have repeatedly expressed their interest in upholding “second amendment rights”. Their plan to further weaken gun laws will only worsen the chance of lethality in already violent relationships. In a country where upwards of 70 women are shot and killed by an intimate partner every single month (Everytown for Gun Safety), this is terrifying. In addition to their energy for deregulating guns, they also have a great deal of energy for defunding the programs that support survivors. The architects of Project 2025, who notably had a booth at the National Rifle Association convention earlier this year, recommend taking billions of dollars out of the Crime Victims Fund. That fund provides critical financial support for a host of organizations serving victims, including programs addressing domestic and sexual violence. Including programs like the ones I used to run.

Now let’s talk about no-fault divorce, shall we? Married couples across the country have had access to no-fault divorce for over 50 years, a tool crucial for those seeking to end abusive marriages. During the campaign, old comments by Vance circulated criticizing the practice. He complained that that people divorce too easily, shifting “spouses like they change their underwear”. In 2022, Republican Party platforms in Texas and Nebraska were amended to call for the removal of no-fault divorce, and GOP lawmakers in multiple other states filed bills with similar intent. Advocates for survivors are quite worried that a Trump/Vance administration will jump start these efforts again. Complicated divorce processes, or requiring victims to “prove” they’re being abused, throw insurmountable and frankly dangerous barriers in front of survivors. As a former advocate myself, I can easily imagine survivors giving up on a divorce process, or not even trying in the first place, because the court proceedings themselves will put them at further risk of harm.

With all of that, we are also seeing states do away with maternal morbidity panels, choosing to end the practice of investigating what went wrong when a pregnant person dies. A Texas committee that examines all pregnancy-related deaths in the state will not review cases from 2022 and 2023, which are notably the first two years after Texas’s near-total abortion ban took effect. This will leave any deaths potentially related to abortion bans unexamined by the 23 medical professionals and other specialists who comprise the committee. There will be no inquiry, no curiosity, as to whether any of the deaths could have resulted from delays in care caused by the abortion bans.

Similarly in Georgia, the state’s public health commissioner dismissed the entire maternal mortality committee. This happened shortly after ProPublica obtained information that the committee determined the deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller to be preventable. Amber and Candi were the first reported cases of women who died without access to care that was restricted by a state abortion ban. It is horrific that pregnant people are dying for any reason. It is also horrific that there are states who have no interest in determining what could have been done to prevent their deaths. It’s an astounding abdication of responsibility.

Where does this all leave us? Each policy or practice will absolutely put women at risk of harm. But we really need to consider the sum of the parts to fully appreciate the full impact and the pattern of oppression. Victims of abuse losing bodily autonomy, having fewer options to leave violent marriages, with a multitude of guns and a dearth of services around them — this is really what we are looking at. And some women will live and die in states that won’t care to investigate the conditions of their deaths. The sum of the parts is truly terrifying.

Just six weeks ago, Trump talked about “protecting” women at one of his campaign rallies. To put a finer point on it, what he actually said was: “…whether the women like it or not, I'm going to protect them”. Clearly the concept of consent means nothing to him, we already knew that. But if Trump truly had any interest in creating safety for women, he might do well to start by regulating guns, increasing access to all forms of reproductive health care, funding programs for survivors of domestic violence, fighting sexual assault instead of fighting victims, expanding health insurance, and providing women with the resources they need to be safe and well.

And we all know he won’t do that. I also believe that even when he claims that he won’t seek policies like a national abortion ban, he won’t do much to stop others from doing so. Donald Trump lies. He says what he thinks he needs to in the moment, and to take him at his word about abortion is a dangerous disservice to people of childbearing age. To take him at his word is to buy into his gaslighting.

Donald Trump is an abuser. He is an abuser who has been handed enormous power to inflict harm. He is an abuser who has surrounded himself with other abusers. He is nominating those other abusers to positions where they will also have enormous power to cause great harm, and where they will only aid and abet the implementation of his abusive platform — something I will absolutely write more about in a future post.

And we must fight him at every turn. Part of how we do so is to connect these dots, sound the alarm, and tell everyone who will listen. We continue to see politicians and legacy media outlets whitewash his extremism and abusive behavior. We cannot let them do so. Shout from the rooftops that real people will experience real harm if we don’t push back on this entire policy package. We cannot adequately address a problem that we don’t clearly name, so let’s clearly name what’s happening here. Once we name it, we can fight it.