Democrats are dusting off the abortion playbook as part of an effort to energize the resistance against President Trump and Republicans in the run-up to the 2025 and 2026 elections.

On the third anniversary of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, which provided a constitutional right to abortion, Democrats and pro-choice activists on Tuesday lamented the damage that has been done to women across the nation and warned that things will get worse if Mr. Trump and Republicans get their way.

“These anti-choice fanatics will stop at nothing,” Sen. Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. “Republicans want to double their efforts on their crusade against access to reproductive healthcare and the right to choose.”

Democrats said Mr. Trump has fallen back on his promise not to interfere with states on the issue by pushing the “Big, Beautiful Bill” that seeks in part to defund Planned Parenthood and eliminate health care plans that cover abortion from the Affordable Care Act marketplaces.

“Let’s call this what it is: It is a Republican backdoor abortion ban,” Mr. Schumer said, before warning the proposal would jeopardize the future of 200 Planned Parenthood health centers, most of which are in states where abortion is legal.

“So don’t let the Republicans argue this is about states’ rights. It is all about them taking power away from women to make choices about their bodies,” the New York Democrat said.

Democrats and activists said that since the Dobbs decision, 21 states have adopted tighter abortion restrictions and 14 have embraced near-total abortion bans.

Looking forward, they said the GOP is now targeting the abortion pill mifepristone, and looking to further restrict abortion access in South Carolina, Ohio, and other states.

The sounding of the alarm on abortion rights comes seven months after Democrats’ intense focus on the issue was not enough to save Kamala Harris and down-ticket Democrats from disappointing defeats in the 2024 election.

The setbacks followed a series of election cycles in which Democrats appeared to benefit from the blowback against the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Mr. Trump, however, was able to defuse the attacks against him by refusing to embrace calls for a federal abortion ban and making it clear that abortion limits should be left up to the states to decide.

According to exit polls, Ms. Harris won nearly 90% of voters who wanted no abortion limits, but voters who wished to make abortion legal in most cases were split evenly between Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump.

Since the November election, the emotional issue has largely fallen by the wayside, overshadowed by heated political battles over the Trump administration’s new trade tariffs, reductions to the federal workforce, stiffer immigration enforcement, tax cuts and a U.S military strike against nuclear facilities in Iran.

“There’s no question that abortion politics have shifted since Dobbs,” said Kirsten Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America, a pro-life group. “Simply repeating ’abortion is good’ and ’Republicans are extreme’ isn’t enough — it didn’t work in 2024 the way some hoped, and voters are demanding a more nuanced, values-based approach.”

“That means talking about how we protect women’s health, support women in crisis, make birth affordable — even free — and ensure real choices exist beyond abortion,” Ms. Day said. “That’s where the political and moral high ground is.”

“Unfortunately, the echo chamber does not allow for common sense when it comes to abortion,” she said.

Indeed, Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, told reporters on a conference call Tuesday that abortion rights continue to be supported by a strong majority of Americans, and promised the party will “always stand up for abortion rights.”

“Regardless of whether or not this is a popular issue or electorally a winning issue, which it is, the reality is, this is not an issue about right or left,” Mr. Martin said. “This is an issue about right or wrong, and our party will always stand with women when they make their health care decisions.”

“This is a decision that is left to them and them alone, and we will always stand with women in this regard,” he said.

• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.