It has become a rhetorical theme for Democrats working to hold on to the White House: Allies of former president , they say, want to infuse conservative ideals into how the federal government does business. Health Brief is a coproduction of The Washington Post and KFF Health News. That vision is outlined in the “ ,” a 900-page blueprint produced by the conservative and other conservative organizations as a guide for the next administration.
Although Project 2025 has no place in his campaign, Democrats keep bringing it up. On each night of the Democratic National Convention so far, speakers have invoked Project 2025, with Sen. (I-Vt.
) calling it “radical”; Colorado Gov. (D) holding up a bound copy of the “Mandate for Leadership” and Trump’s “road map to ban abortion in all 50 states”; and comedian highlighting its call to use the 19th-century to block the mailing of abortion pills. Among Project 2025’s proposals are plans for federal health policy.
For instance, the would adopt a staunch antiabortion stance, and federal approval for one commonly used abortion drug could be revisited and potentially withdrawn. “Abortion,” “reproductive health” and any other term “used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights” would be removed from every federal rule, regulation, grant or piece of legislation. The would research abortion risks and complications.
And HHS would be recast as the Department of Life, underscoring a new Christian nationalist focus. Although Trump has repeatedly denied that the document will inform his White House if he wins in November, Democrats’ focus on Project 2025 will probably continue beyond the convention, in part because some of its proposals, including abortion restrictions, poll poorly for him and other Republican candidates. Support for abortion access is growing.
of adults want their state to allow legal abortion for any reason, conducted in June by and the ’s NORC, which provides social research. Vice President ’s Project 2025 shows “they’ll implement a 50-state ‘backdoor ban’ on abortion — without Congress — and jail health care providers.” Abortion rights groups are also using Project 2025 to say Trump would endanger access to abortion.
The former president has said abortion issues should be decided by states. “We’re so focused on educating voters about 2025. It’s an extreme ban,” said , director of public policy at .
The Heritage report, a version of which has been produced roughly every four years since the 1980s, has had considerable sway on GOP presidents. Former president adopted about of the recommendations in a Heritage guide. Trump did the same in his presidency.
As Election Day approaches, Trump continues to try to distance himself from the document, and its authors say he wasn’t involved. A number of high-ranking officials from his administration, though, were. His running mate, Sen.
of Ohio, wrote the foreword to a yet-to-be-released book by , who is president of Heritage. , vice president of domestic policy at Heritage, who wrote the HHS chapter in the Project 2025 blueprint, ran the agency’s Office for Civil Rights during Trump’s presidency. Severino pushed back on Democratic claims that the document would ban medication abortion: “It’s a lie, plain and simple,” he said.
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