The Venn Diagram is practically a circle.

With their joint interests in decimating bodily autonomy, the anti-trans and anti-abortion movements are natural partners, becoming increasingly intertwined as they fight both abortion-rights ballot measures and Planned Parenthood, a pillar for both reproductive health and gender-affirming care.

The conservative onslaught against Planned Parenthood and its federal funding marks most recent crossover of the anti-abortion and anti-trans movements, given Planned Parenthood’s prominence as a provider of both reproductive health care and gender-affirming treatments nationwide. When anti-abortion leaders pushed Congress to approve a budget reconciliation bill stripping Planned Parenthood of federal funding, they widened the tent to include anti-trans activists going on the attack against the gender-affirming care offered by Planned Parenthood.

In a June webinar on turning public opinion against Planned Parenthood, 36 leaders spoke across a variety of conservative issue areas, including prominent anti-trans activists Riley Gaines, Chloe Cole, and Tina Descovich. Cole—who’s largely known for publicly sharing her regret of going through gender transition as a teen and later “detransitioned”—spoke out against Planned Parenthood, stating, “I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Planned Parenthood didn’t stop at abortion, that they didn’t stop at birth control, and they continue to move on to the gender issue.”

And 2025 has been a banner year for anti-trans activists with prominent speaking placements at anti-abortion events. Riley Gaines issued the keynote at Students for Life’s National Celebrate Life Conference, while Chloe Cole appeared at the Live Action Women’s Summit and anti-trans surfer Bethany Hamilton spoke at the 2025 National Pro-Life Summit.

Anti-trans and anti-abortion activists have also joined forces against pro-abortion ballot measures. Throughout multiple election cycles, anti-abortion activists have fearmongered that passing reproductive rights referendums would gut so-called “parents’ rights,” affecting both abortion and gender-affirming care. Much as GOP Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), widely known for his staunch anti-abortion advocacy, alleged Missouri’s 2024 ballot measure would “mandate constitutionally, all reproductive health services, and that includes transgender treatments for minors,” anti-abortion leaders have falsely suggested these ballot measures would result in parents being excluded from their children’s health care decisions.

Despite the passage of the Missouri abortion ballot measure in November, the state’s parental consent requirement for minors seeking abortions remains in effect, which Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has vowed to enforce. A recent lawsuit, however, filed against the state and Bailey seeks to overturn the parental consent law. In another legal battle over the state’s parental consent laws, the presiding judge stated, “I find that the right to reproductive freedom initiative does not address the issue of parental consent.”

Legal experts have also debunked the notion that the amendment would give way to minors receiving gender-affirming care. According to the Missouri Independent, Kelly Gillespie of Center for Health Law Studies at St. Louis University “said for the amendment to include gender-affirming health care, it would need to say so directly.”

Though largely known for their work pushing conservative, pro-censorship policies at school boards nationwide and its close ties to SPLC-designated “hate or extremist” groups , Moms for Liberty recently pivoted their strategy to center anti-trans advocacy, and fighting heavily against New York’s 2024 abortion ballot measure. In their ultimately unsuccessful efforts to defeat the amendment, Moms for Liberty echoed far-fetched claims—similar to Hawley’s and other abortion opponents’ disinformation—that the amendment could result in children undergoing gender transition without parental consent.

As my Reproaction colleague Laila Salaam wrote in a June blog post, “Both access to gender-affirming care and access to abortion are rights to determine one’s own future and to live authentically without government interference. That fundamental human right is one worth fighting for. These attacks against that right demand a unified, unapologetic movement rooted in bodily autonomy, self-determination, and collective liberation.”

At the core of the anti-trans and anti-abortion movements is a concerted effort to limit bodily autonomy. And for those of us in the battle to protect reproductive health, it’s crucial to see how our goals are one and the same as those committed to trans justice, joined together by a shared commitment of entrusting people to direct their own futures and bonded by the tenets of reproductive justice.

Editor’s Note: Jasmine will be speaking at the October 8 Netroots Nation panel “Trans and Repro Rights: Right-wing Attacks on Bodily Autonomy.” Register here for this free virtual event.