The advocacy organization Reproductive Equity Now warned Wednesday that anti-abortion politicians and activists have a "close and personal ally" in Gaetz. The group pointed to Gaetz's record of voting against legislation to protect abortion care, voting in favor of restrictions on abortion care, and calling abortion activists "fat and ugly."

Abortion rights “won the popular vote in ballot initiatives across the country,” Rebecca Hart Holder, executive director of Reproductive Equity Now, said via text when I asked for her reaction to the election results. “It’s clear,” she said, “that women are angry and are demanding bodily autonomy to make the decisions that are right for their families.” The path forward, she said, is “to invest in state governments and state-based solutions … to pass bold policies that ensure people from near and far can access the care they want and need.”

“Donald Trump’s Supreme Court ushered in abortion bans in 22 states across our country, leaving millions of people without access to basic health care … Donald Trump’s abortion bans have killed pregnant people,” said Reproductive Equity Now President Rebecca Hart Holder in a statement.

“We spend a lot of time doing scenario planning for a Harris administration and a Trump administration, but I don’t want to tip my hand too much,” Holder, of Reproductive Equity Now, said. “We are making sure we are prepared no matter who becomes president … We are thinking creatively about how to continue to ensure there is access.” 

"The goal — the end game for anti-abortion activists — is to ban abortion in all 50 states," Reproductive Equity Now President Rebecca Hart-Holder said. "So one of the ways that you do that is to ban a type of abortion.”

“Donald Trump is full of bologna,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, president of Reproductive Equity Now. “The only thing we should be trusting is Trump’s record of overturning Roe v. Wade, wanting to punish patients who seek abortion, and criminalizing doctors who offer life-saving and life-affirming care. Trump is running from his cruel anti-reproductive record because he knows that American voters will overwhelmingly demand the ability to decide if, when, and how to start or grow their families this Election Day.”

Why has it taken so long for Massachusetts to catch up to the rest of the country? “The institutional health care system in Massachusetts thinks that birth should be taking place in hospitals,” said Taylor St. Germain of Reproductive Equity Now. “We have had to do a lot of education to prove that there are huge, huge health benefits to having out-of-hospital birth options and to making sure that people have autonomy and dignity in their birthing experiences.”