In a political landscape increasingly defined by fierce battles over health care and reproductive rights, Democrats in California and New Jersey have launched coordinated efforts to counter Republican-led initiatives that threaten access to abortion and vital safety net health programs. As the United States barrels toward the 2026 midterm elections, these state-level fights are shaping up to have national implications, with redistricting and funding cuts at the heart of the debate.
On August 20, 2025, abortion rights groups threw their weight behind California Democrats in a high-stakes campaign to redraw the state’s congressional maps. Their goal? To offset what they call Republican gerrymandering efforts in Texas and other conservative states, which have followed on the heels of deeply unpopular cuts to Medicaid and new restrictions on reproductive care. According to Politico, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California CEO Jodi Hicks declared, “You take away our freedoms, we’ll take away your seats,” during Governor Gavin Newsom’s pitch for adopting Democratic-leaning maps. Hicks made it clear that her organization, representing about one in five Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide, is ready to “go all in” on Newsom’s ballot measure, though she stopped short of revealing the exact amount they would spend on the campaign.
California legislators are currently debating whether to adopt new congressional maps drawn by Newsom allies, which would temporarily replace those crafted by the state’s independent redistricting commission. If the legislature approves the proposal, voters will have the final say in a special election this November. The move comes as part of a broader mobilization by reproductive rights advocates, alarmed by what they see as a coordinated GOP attack on both health care access and democratic norms.
Since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, conservative states like Texas have implemented near-total abortion bans. The Republican-controlled Congress, under the Trump administration, passed a sweeping tax-and-spending bill that slashes Medicaid by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade. These cuts threaten to destabilize providers like Planned Parenthood, which rely on Medicaid to serve low-income patients. The Trump administration also barred the organization and its affiliates from being reimbursed for nonabortion services such as cancer screenings and birth control—a move currently paused by a federal judge pending legal challenge.
Hicks, alongside other abortion rights leaders, worries that the Republican agenda doesn’t stop with state-level restrictions. She warned of the possibility of a national abortion ban and said, “We can’t sit idly by while the Trump administration, while their backers in Congress, pursue every avenue to strip blue states of their autonomy.” The urgency is shared by national groups like Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL), which praised Newsom for “holding Republicans accountable for trying to steal votes.” Planned Parenthood Texas Votes has also mobilized supporters to testify at special legislative sessions and held webinars to “stop the redistricting power grab.”
Governor Newsom, whose political aspirations may extend to a 2028 presidential bid, has positioned the redistricting effort as a direct countermeasure to Republican gerrymandering in Texas. The GOP currently holds a fragile five-seat advantage in the U.S. House, and Newsom argues that “neutralizing” Texas’s efforts is essential to preserving Democratic influence. He has called on lawmakers in other Democratic states—Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, New York, and Ohio among them—to consider similar redistricting maneuvers if Republican-controlled states press ahead with their plans. Political analysts, such as Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report, caution that these tit-for-tat moves could trigger a “redistricting apocalypse” with far-reaching consequences for congressional control.
The proposed California map, if approved by voters, would take effect for the 2026, 2028, and 2030 elections—but only if another state implements its own gerrymandering initiative. After the 2030 census, the state’s independent commission would regain control. Paul Mitchell, a redistricting expert who helped draft the new Democratic map, insists that the changes are measured, explaining, “This is not a Twitter hack job. I want to get back to nonpartisan redistricting, but right now we’re in a crisis.” For more than half the districts, fewer than 10% of voters would be moved, he says.
Republicans, however, are crying foul. Corrin Rankin, chair of the California Republican Party, called the proposal a “calculated power grab that dismantles the very safeguards voters put in place” when they passed redistricting reform in 2010. Veteran GOP strategist Rob Stutzman noted that California voters still overwhelmingly support the independent redistricting system and warned that passing such a complex ballot measure during an off-year election would be “no easy feat.” He added, “You’re asking voters to make an unprincipled decision. You’re asking them to rig an election because allegedly Texas is rigging an election. ‘No’ votes are so much easier when it’s confusing, and this is extremely confusing.”
Meanwhile, in New Jersey, Democrats are waging their own battle to defend reproductive rights and health care access. At a press event outside the statehouse in Trenton, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, OB/GYN Dr. Kristyn Brandi, and Deputy Mercer County Administrator Taraun Tice McKnight took aim at Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli for his support of an abortion ban and his pledge to defund Planned Parenthood if elected. Watson Coleman didn’t mince words: “New Jersey is an outpost right now. We’re one of the few states that are fighting back to all the things that this administration in Washington is trying to take away—whether it is access to health care, decent housing, whether it’s the right to vote, but most importantly, whether or not I as a woman have a right to make the decisions regarding my body. Mikie has stood up tall for each and every one of those issues, and that is the kind of leadership that we need to have here in New Jersey.”
Dr. Brandi, an abortion provider, underscored the essential role that Planned Parenthood plays in New Jersey, providing cancer screenings, birth control, STI testing and treatment, HIV/AIDS care, and abortion services. “Jack Ciattarelli supports an abortion ban here in New Jersey, and he has vowed to defund Planned Parenthood… Reproductive health care providers like Planned Parenthood are a trusted health care provider up and down New Jersey that provides critical care like lifesaving cancer screenings, birth control, testing for treatment for sexually transmitted infections, HIV and AIDS care, and independent abortion clinics, like the ones that I work for, help provide life saving and life affirming care. As an abortion provider, I’ve seen the impact,” she said.
Deputy Mercer County Administrator Tice McKnight added that defunding safety net providers would force low-income communities to seek unsafe alternatives, further increasing barriers to care. “This is about a full range of reproductive health care, prenatal care, cancer screenings, contraceptives and the ability to make informed and autonomous decisions at every stage of life. What is wrong is that the policies articulated by Jack Ciattarelli, and his threat to defund Planned Parenthood and many other safety nets that women deserve and need to maintain their families—they’ll be forced to seek unhealthy and unsafe alternatives, which will create even more barriers to access appropriate care, especially those who are in low income communities like Trenton,” she stated.
As the debate rages, recent polling underscores the political risks for Republicans. Nearly half of adults surveyed in July 2025 believe the Republican tax-and-spending law will hurt them, while more than half support abortion legality under some circumstances. Democratic leaders have seized on these sentiments, arguing that Republican attempts to change election rules and cut health care are driven by their inability to win fair contests. “They know that voters will hold them accountable for the cuts they rammed through Congress that will strip health care away from millions of people,” said California state lawmaker Sabrina Cervantes.
With stakes this high, both sides are digging in for a protracted fight. The outcome of these battles will not only shape the political map but also determine the future of health care and reproductive rights for millions of Americans. As voters prepare to weigh in, the campaigns on both coasts are making it clear: the consequences of these decisions will be felt far beyond state lines.