“This Site Can’t Be Reached”: The disappearance of ReproductiveRights.gov
Atala Johnson ’28
johnsonael@lakeforest.edu
JOUR 320 student
Laine Hole, a 19-year-old sophomore at Lake Forest College, has feared for the future of reproductive rights since her Catholic school years when her peers debated abortion. Most of her classmates opposed abortion, but Hole said she has always believed it is a fundamental right.
“I never thought the day would come when my rights would be taken away,” said Hole, who grew up in California, where voters altered the state constitution to protect reproductive freedoms.
She’s not alone. In the hours after Pres. Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, the ReproductiveRights.gov website went missing from the Internet, alarming rights advocates like Hole and others nationwide. What once was a resource hub for Americans, with information about accessing health insurance and related reproductive health issues, is now a blank screen that reads, “This site can’t be reached.”
The site’s removal may be associated with the executive order “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which recognizes only two sexes. At stake, some say, is public health and well-being, especially for more than 15 million between the ages of 18 and 24, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. President Trump also signed an executive order enforcing the Hyde Amendment, which restricts federal funding for abortions, and ended federal funding of abortion overseas.
“Federal overreach and taxpayer dollars will no longer force violations of faith and conscience or impede the ability of states to determine life policies through a vote of the people,” a White House press release reads.
Launched in 2022 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a public awareness campaign, the site had several sections about “your right” to birth control coverage and abortion access. It also included information about over-the-counter methods of contraception, how the Affordable Care Act applies to Americans wanting birth control prescriptions or financial coverage for an abortion, how Medicaid funds cover abortion, and what websites can be resources for Americans needing education on abortion procedures and laws, an online archive shows.
“Reproductive health care, including access to birth control and safe and legal abortion care, is an essential part of your health and well-being,” a statement on the website read, according to CBS News. “While Roe v. Wade was overturned, abortion remains legal in many states, and other reproductive health care services remain protected by law.”
Whether or not ReproductiveRights.gov and other websites that contain health information will continue to be withheld from public view remains to be seen. U.S. District Judge John Bates approved a temporary restraining order earlier this month maintaining HHS violated federal law by removing websites that withdrew health-related information, including content about HIV and contraception, from publicly accessible websites. As of Feb. 22 [2025], ReproductiveRights.gov was still down.
At the same time, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as HHS. That development—along with the end of Roe v. Wade—means sites like reproductiverights.org are even less likely to be restored, says Stephanie Caparelli, an assistant professor of politics at Lake Forest College.
“I doubt very much that’s going to be a goal on day one,” Caparelli said, adding that limits on contraception, which offer protection from pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, could be next.
For college-aged women like Lotus Buss, 18, a Lake Forest College freshman, the future of accessible reproductive health care under the Trump administration is unknown.
“As a young woman, it is disheartening to anticipate policies that may not align with my best interests or protect my autonomy over my own body,” Buss said. “The removal of the reproductiverights.gov website suggests a deliberate effort to limit access to crucial information, reinforcing the notion that reproductive healthcare is not a priority for this administration.”
JoBeth Harrison, 46, agrees.
Harrison serves as a board member of the Illinois Choice Action Team, a pro-choice organization that works to protect abortion access and provides volunteers for women seeking clinic escorts. The organization has increased its geographic reach to serve more women in need, and demand increased last month, Harrison says.
On a recent Saturday, for example, cars from Indiana, Georgia, Utah, and Florida license were parked outside a Lake County abortion clinic.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen now with the website being down,” Harrison said. “[We’ve] already seen such an uptick with women having to travel very long distances in order to get healthcare services, so it’s very unfortunate.”