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Press Release
Reproductive Freedom for All Condemns Trump CDC Nominee Erica Schwartz’s Call for Abortion Surveillance in Confirmation Hearing
For Immediate Release: Friday, July 17, 2026
Contact: [email protected]
Reproductive Freedom for All Condemns Trump CDC Nominee Erica Schwartz’s Call for Abortion Surveillance in Confirmation Hearing
Washington, DC — During her confirmation hearing Wednesday, Erica Schwartz, Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), pledged that “abortion surveillance is a critical component” of the agency’s work in response to questioning from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).
Hawley is one of the Senate’s most extreme anti-abortion voices. Earlier this year, he introduced legislation that would ban mifepristone nationwide. During Wednesday’s hearing, Hawley pressed Schwartz to ensure that the CDC obtains abortion data from every state, citing reporting gaps from states with strong abortion protections. Hawley’s comments raise serious concerns about how the Trump administration, which is intent on restricting abortion access, could use that data to target patients, providers, and states that protect abortion care.
Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju released the following statement:
“Erica Schwartz’s testimony was chilling and should alarm everyone who believes private medical decisions belong to patients, not politicians. The Senate must reject this nomination, and every senator who votes to confirm her will have to answer to their constituents for it.”
The CDC currently publishes abortion statistics using aggregate data voluntarily submitted by state and local health agencies. But in the hands of the Trump administration and anti-abortion politicians like Hawley, abortion surveillance could be expanded or weaponized to collect more intrusive information, spread disinformation about reproductive health care, and support efforts to investigate or criminalize patients and providers. Schwartz’s testimony offered no reassurance that she would protect patient privacy or prevent the agency’s public health authorities from being used to advance an anti-abortion agenda.
Schwartz is not the first Trump nominee this week to embrace a dangerous anti-abortion agenda. During his confirmation hearing Wednesday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche pledged that the Department of Justice would investigate the mailing of mifepristone and opened the door to misusing the Comstock Act—a move that could impose a backdoor nationwide abortion ban.
If confirmed, Schwartz would serve under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has repeatedly spread disinformation about abortion care and called for a politically motivated review of mifepristone—despite the medication’s decades-long record of safe use and extensive scientific evidence demonstrating its safety and effectiveness. Once again, Trump’s nominees are making clear their willingness to weaponize the federal government to advance an anti-abortion agenda.
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For over 55 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4.5 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.
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