What's old is new: how anti-trans policy mimics the anti-abortion strategy that culminated in Dobbs.

Legislation restricting the rights of transgender people has increased dramatically in recent years. This trend echoes the historical arc of anti-abortion legislation. Over the 50 years between the US Supreme Court decisions in Roe and Dobbs, anti-abortion advocates worked to erode abortion access by expanding both the volume and scope of legislative attacks. While many of the bills proposed prior to Dobbs were enjoined pending litigation, their overall effect was to chill the provision of care, and propel a federal legal strategy that dismantled abortion access, paving the way for contemporary abortion bans. The anti-trans movement has followed the same playbook. In considering how to resist these assaults, the pro-abortion movement provides valuable lessons, both through an analysis of its strategic defeats, and of its post-Dobbs resilience. Advocates for trans rights must vigorously affirm the humanity of trans people, mobilize institutional support, and coordinate a strategic states-based defense to resist contemporary anti-trans legislation.