It’s clear that access to lifesaving vaccines, from COVID-19 boosters to measles inoculations, will depend on where you live in America. You can thank Republicans for that.
It’s clear that access to reproductive health services, from abortions to in vitro fertilization, will also depend on where you live. You can thank Republicans for that as well.
The medical and civil rights of transgender children and adults will vary dramatically by state, forcing a migration of Americans who simply want to exist. That’s the work of Republicans.
Basic human values, from the rejection of federal militarization of U.S. streets to the soulless warehousing of migrants in modern-day concentration camps, are swiftly being defined by state borders. Access to an education based on science and facts and reality vs. one based on jingoism and erasure and nonsense is becoming region-dependent.
Trump is making it impossible for American states to stay united
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies at a Senate hearing in Washington, DC, on Sept. 4, 2025.
Again, this is all thanks to Republicans and President Donald Trump. Only months into his second term, Trump has dramatically diminished the odds that the United States of America can remain united.
I know some will write this off as liberal alarmism. But look at what’s already happening in the wake of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine policies, which have sown confusion nationwide about the availability of and individual eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine.
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Blue states are joining together to protect vaccine availability
A West Coast Health Alliance that includes California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington has formed to counter Kennedy’s destruction of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office released a statement saying the goal is to “provide evidence-based immunization guidance rooted in safety, efficacy, and transparency ‒ ensuring residents receive credible information free from political interference.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announces on Sept. 4, 2025: “Hawaii is joining California, Oregon, and Washington in the West Coast Health Alliance, which is providing unified recommendations on immunizations to residents based on science, not politics.”
Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is balking at federal changes and making sure insurers cover state-recommended vaccines. Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order that lets pharmacists prescribe and provide the COVID-19 vaccine to anyone 3 and older.
In a statement, Hochul said: “By signing this executive order, we are sending a clear message that when Washington Republicans play politics with public health, New Yorkers can still get the care they need, close to home, from trusted providers in their own communities.”
Florida wants to get rid of all vaccine mandates, even for schools
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis addresses an event in Melbourne on Aug. 11, 2025.
It’s not hard to see where this is going. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis just made a big to-do of declaring that his state will do away with all vaccine requirements, including those for schoolchildren. Other red-state governors will undoubtedly try to out-MAGA DeSantis and curry favor with Trump by doing the same.
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Before long, parents are going to have to decide whether to live in a state with an anti-science policy that puts the public’s health at risk, or relocate to a place led by people who haven’t lost their minds.
Access to reproductive rights will force people to relocate
Democratic-led states like Illinois are taking steps to protect reproductive rights. Gov. JB Pritzker recently signed a bill that requires all public colleges and universities in the state to provide medication for abortion and contraception.
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Republican-led states are moving in the opposite direction, with Texas Republicans recently passing a bill that would let any Texan sue anyone who mails abortion pills into the state, whether it’s a manufacturer or a doctor.
Again, it’s easy to see the end point as red states grow more draconian. Do you want to live somewhere that gives women freedom over their reproductive health, or in a state that instills fear?
If where you live doesn’t align with your values, what do you do?
Protestesters near Ochopee, Florida, on June 28, 2025.
If you’re appalled by the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants and you see Florida leaders boasting about a detention camp they labeled “Alligator Alcatraz,” are you going to stay there or move there? Or are you going to seek out a place that aligns with your values?
If you have a transgender child, are you going to stay or move to a state like Louisiana that has banned gender-affirming care, or will you seek refuge in a place that embraces your kid for who they are?
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Do you want your child educated in a state like Oklahoma, which is trying to spend millions of dollars to put a Bible in each classroom and requires history teachers to teach conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election?
Or do you want a state that maintains rigorous standards for education grounded in facts?
It’s no longer about politics. It’s about sense vs. nonsense.
To me, a population shift seems inevitable. I wouldn’t call it an ideological migration, because this isn’t about ideology. It’s about a swath of Americans who have leaned fully into conspiracies and abandoned any reliance on the truth, who have opted for the ignorant salve of self-affirming beliefs and a destructive I-do-my-own-research sense of self-importance.
Protesters rally outside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on June 25, 2025, while the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices convenes with all new members appointed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy.
We can call it red and blue until we’re gasping for air, but it’s more than that – this is about values and common sense, two things most humans consider foundational.
Republicans will keep forcing this divide with backward-looking and exclusionary policies, and they’ve clearly got enough supporters to keep at it for a good while.
So I’m not sure what we’re waiting for. There’s nothing united about these states, and it would take a sea change in people’s attitudes to stitch things back together.
Why not just divvy up the country into sense and nonsense now and get it over with?
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: America is breaking up. You can thank Republicans for that | Opinion
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