This piece first appeared in our weekly newsletter, The Fallout.

Conservatives are floating an outrageous and dangerous new legal theory in their crusade against medication abortion. It’s one that, if embraced, would dramatically expand state power to regulate pregnancy and birth.

In their proposed amended complaint, three conservative attorneys general argue that the state has a right to future pregnancies and babies and the availability of medication abortion is interfering with that right. According to the amended complaint, the attorneys general from Kansas, Missouri, and Idaho claim that decreased births, which they attribute to the availability of abortion pills, create a “sovereign injury to the state in itself,” which in turn leads to other potential injuries like the “losing a seat in Congress or qualifying for less federal funding if their populations are reduced.”

“Each abortion represents at least one lost potential or actual birth,” the amended complaint states.

Yup, you read that correctly. For the first time ever, the conservative legal movement is explicitly claiming the state has a right to your future pregnancies—because without them, their political power will be reduced.

These “population interests,” as articulated by the attorneys general, target pregnant teens, but there’s nothing in the states’ argument that would limit its reach to minors only. Nor is there anything about these arguments that would be limited to policing abortion. If a state truly has a constitutional interest in future pregnancies, it could arguably enact a whole host of policies that don’t just prioritize birth, but mandate it.

In other words, these “population interests” are nothing more than constitutional cover for conservative eugenics. And it’s very likely that a federal judiciary stacked with Donald Trump appointees will be eager to embrace them.