This article has been republished from Autonomy News, a worker-owned publication covering reproductive rights and justice.
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article → republish → rights
An anti-abortion operative is moving up the ranks at the Department of Health and Human Services.
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operative → move → Health
Natalie Dodson, a contributor to Project 2025, was promoted in October to counselor in the Immediate Office of the Secretary, according to her LinkedIn profile.
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Dodson → promote → profile
That means she is in a position to advise HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. directly on programs and policy.
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she → mean → programs
Researchers and abortion providers told Autonomy News they’re worried about the move.
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they → tell → move
“The promotion of Natalie Dodson to a senior position advising the HHS Secretary is very concerning given her history of spreading scientific and health-related misinformation,” Daniel Grossman, an OB-GYN and director of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at the University of California San Francisco, said in a statement.
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Grossman → advise → statement
Dodson previously worked at a far-right think tank, where she railed against the abortion drug mifepristone.
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she → work → drug
During her time at HHS, she won an award for her work on a pronatalist website.
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she → win → website
She also serves as the acting deputy assistant secretary for population affairs, a position she has held since October of last year.
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she → serve → year
That’s the HHS division that oversees Title X, the federal family planning program that the Trump administration has overhauled exactly as Project 2025 laid out.
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Project → ’ → that
Dodson seems to have a friendly relationship with Kennedy—a post on her now-private Instagram profile shows them participating in falconry together.
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them → seem → falconry
HHS did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
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HHS → respond → time
Dodson’s promotion comes at a critical moment.
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promotion → come → moment
Though Democrats have retaken the House and Senate and promised to aggressively investigate Donald Trump and his allies, the White House still has plenty of levers to pull to restrict abortion access.
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House → retake → access
Trump remains in control of federal agencies, which could swiftly impose new limits on medication abortion across the country.
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which → remain → country
Congress would have little power to intervene.
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Congress → have → power
The first attack came within days after the midterm elections: On Friday, the Department of Justice signaled that it would intervene in a Texas lawsuit that, if successful, has the potential to bankrupt Planned Parenthood.
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that → come → Parenthood
In the months leading up to the midterms, administration officials certainly gave the impression that a post-election crackdown was on the way.
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crackdown → lead → way
Attorney General Todd Blanche said he would revisit the federal government’s interpretation of the Comstock Act, an 1873 obscenity law the anti-abortion movement argues should be enforced as a nationwide abortion ban.
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movement → say → ban
On a private call, Blanche also promised “permanent solutions” to the availability of abortion pills by mail.
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Blanche → promise → mail
In a Congressional hearing, FBI Director Kash Patel said he was open to investigating abortion pill manufacturers.
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he → say → manufacturers
Of all these looming threats, the most immediate is likely the Food and Drug Administration’s ongoing “review” of mifepristone’s safety, which is set to be completed early next year.
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which → loom → safety
Recent comments from FDA attorneys suggest that, at the very least, the agency is poised to reinstate old restrictions on mifepristone, which could require patients to make an unnecessary in-person visit to a clinic to get the drug, banning its availability via telehealth.
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which → suggest → telehealth
Project 2025 called for the agency to revoke its approval of the drug entirely, which Kennedy has the power to do.
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Kennedy → call → power
Trump’s latest pick to lead the FDA—Heidi Overton, a physician who has called abortion pills “dangerous”—will almost certainly be confirmed by the outgoing Republican Senate majority before the end of the year.
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who → lead → year
Prior to HHS, Dodson worked at the far-right Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), an organization backed by megadonor Leonard Leo, who also serves on its board.
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who → work → board
Leo-backed groups spent millions to move the federal judiciary to the right, and have continued to pump money into anti-abortion causes since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with its decision in Dobbs.
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Court → back → Dobbs
The post-Dobbs effort to challenge the FDA’s approval of mifepristone in court has been led by Leo-funded organizations.
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effort → challenge → organizations
In fact, it was a report released by the EPPC that kicked off the FDA’s mifepristone review.
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that → release → review
In April 2025, the EPPC published a paper on its website purporting to show that mifepristone is much more dangerous than current FDA data would suggest.
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data → publish → website
The report was deeply flawed—it wasn’t peer reviewed, and experts questioned its methods.
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experts → flaw → methods
However, anti-abortion groups and lawmakers took the questionable paper and ran with it: Missouri Senator Josh Hawley sent a letter to the FDA the same day the report was published, demanding the agency “restore critical safeguards on the use of mifepristone.”
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agency → take → mifepristone
Responding to Hawley in a Senate hearing a few weeks later, Kennedy called the report “alarming” and said its findings “indicate the label needs to be changed.”
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label → respond → report
On June 2, then-FDA Commissioner Marty Makary pledged to conduct a review of mifepristone’s safety.
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Makary → pledge → safety
Though there’s no indication Dodson was involved with the paper, she worked at EPPC when it was published, according to her LinkedIn.
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it → ’ → LinkedIn
And her views on medication abortion are clear: At a 2024 rally outside the Supreme Court, Dodson said she was there to ask the justices “to hold the FDA accountable for its reckless and unreasoned decision to remove important safeguards from high-risk abortion drugs.
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FDA → say → drugs
Dodson’s “statements about medication abortion do not reflect the large body of scientific evidence confirming the treatment’s safety,” Grossman said.
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Grossman → reflect → safety
Ashley Jeanlus, another OB-GYN and a reproductive health advocacy fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, agreed.
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Jeanlus → agree → Health
“Dodson didn’t come to HHS with a background in medicine or science.
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Dodson → come → medicine
She came from an anti-abortion think tank and contributed to Project 2025, and has a long history of prioritizing so-called ‘fetal personhood’ over the health and well-being of pregnant patients in the United States,” Jeanlus said in a statement to Autonomy News.
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Jeanlus → come → News
…and 16 more, not listed.
The Aporia
