In all this chaos, let's not forget about abortion rights
Project 2025 has a plan for that, too. Here's something you can do about it.
In the constant chaos inflicted on us by the trump administration, let’s not lose sight of a key Project 2025 goal: the elimination of abortion rights.
As you know, many Project 2025 goals are already in progress, such as the evisceration of Medicaid and the decimation of the federal workforce. I haven’t seen any active federal implementation measures with respect to abortion yet, but be aware and be ready.
Reduce federal government? Not when it comes to your lady parts!
Project 2025 is supposed to be a blueprint to reduce federal government. Sounds good, right? In fact, on page 450, Project 2025 declares that health care reform should “empower individuals to control their health care-related dollars and decisions. Of course, providers who deliver health care also need the freedom to address the unique needs of their patients. States should be the primary regulators of the medical profession, and the government should not restrict providers’ ability to discharge their responsibilities.”
YAYYYY! They’re gonna let us discuss our unique health care needs in the privacy of our doctors’ offices and decide what medical care is right for us, right? They’re finally gonna stop their creepy obsession with our hoohas, right? WRONG!
Project 2025 calls for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to conduct “abortion surveillance”. What is abortion surveillance? It’s right there on page 455: “ensure that every state reports exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother’s state of residence, and by what method.” Currently, there is no federal law requiring states to gather and report this information. This reduces the power of the federal government??? OF COURSE NOT! It increases the federal government’s power over doctors by forcing states to force health care providers to report detailed personal information on every girl or woman who seeks an abortion or miscarriage care. Information that can be used to investigate, prosecute and imprison doctors and women from states with abortion restrictions.
Imagine your daughter, your niece, your sister, your girlfriend, your wife. Seeking an abortion or miscarriage care after date rape, after a diagnosis of fetal death, after an incomplete miscarriage. And yes, after making the very common stupid teenage mistake of unprotected sex. In the Republicans’ abortion surveillance state, she is unlikely to get the medical care she needs, as doctors and hospitals constrain themselves while the government looks over their shoulder itching for a crime to prosecute. It’s already happening in some states, even without this federal mandate. See here https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brittany-watts-the-ohio-woman-charged-with-a-felony-after-a-miscarriage-talks-shock-of-her-arrest/ and here https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/13/us/texas-abortion-doctor-prosecution.html?unlocked_article_code=1.I08.7d1d.KJZHYHvYpdzs&smid=url-share.
But wait! There’s more!
The conventional wisdom prior to the 2024 election was that trump did not support a national abortion ban. But the Republicans don’t need a national abortion ban to eliminate abortion and prevent miscarriage management nationwide. How, you ask?
Project 2025 has other ways to shove the government firmly up in your private medical business:
On page 457, Project 2025 requires that the FDA reverse its decision (made more than 20 years ago) to approve the drug mifepristone. Right on cue, last week the repulsive RFK Jr. ordered an FDA review of mifepristone, based on bogus “new data” published by anti-choice activists. Read more here: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5304436-fda-mifepristone-review-abortion-rights-advocates/.
Next, criminalize the transportation across state lines of medications and supplies that can be used for abortion (page 458). Never mind that mifepristone has other medical purposes, such as the treatment of ulcers, and that the medical equipment used in abortion is also used in routine OB-GYN care, including during pregnancy and delivery. Republicans claim this is authorized under the Comstock Act, a 19th century law that hasn’t been enforced since the 1930s. Read more here: https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/the-comstock-act-implications-for-abortion-care-nationwide/.
Finally, withdraw Medicaid funding from states that require health insurance providers to cover abortion care (page 472). On the other hand, Project 2025 would prevent the federal government from withholding Medicare funding from hospitals that fail to provide miscarriage management or abortion during a medical emergency (page 473). How fucking perverse is that - rewarding so-called health care providers who would rather let a woman bleed out in the parking lot than clean out her infected uterus.
When I was a young woman, I had the right to make my own medical decisions. Today, young women in almost half of the states do not. And if Republicans are able to fully implement Project 2025, NO young woman in America will. And not only that, they will be denied life-saving care because doctors will be too afraid of prosecution.
You have an obligation to prevent this grim future for the girls and young women you love. You have an obligation to save your daughters, your sisters, your nieces, your granddaughters, your girlfriend, your wife, and all women from a life of second class citizenship.
What can I do?
Here is one thing you can do: Go to https://aidaccess.org/en/page/2880027/advance-provision. Order medication abortion pills for future use for yourself, family, friends or strangers. Post on your socials that you will help anyone who needs help with an unplanned pregnancy. I did. You need to do it too. NOW.
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https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf