Project 2025 Would Recast HHS as the Federal Department of Life
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.
That vision is outlined in the Project 2025&苍产蝉辫;鈥,鈥 a 900-page blueprint produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation 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. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) calling it 鈥渞adical鈥; Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) holding up a bound copy of the 鈥淢andate for Leadership鈥 and Trump鈥檚 鈥渞oad map to ban abortion in all 50 states鈥; and comedian Kenan Thompson highlighting its call to use the 19th-century to block the mailing of abortion pills.
Among Project 2025鈥檚 proposals are plans for federal health policy.
For instance, the Department of Health and Human Services would adopt a staunch antiabortion stance, and federal approval for one commonly used abortion drug could be revisited and potentially withdrawn.
鈥淎bortion,鈥 鈥渞eproductive health鈥 and any other term 鈥渦sed to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights鈥 would be removed from every federal rule, regulation, grant or piece of legislation.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 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鈥 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. Sixty-one percent of adults want their state to allow legal abortion for any reason, conducted in June by the Associated Press and the University of Chicago鈥檚 NORC, which provides social research.
Vice President Kamala Harris鈥檚&苍产蝉辫; Project 2025 shows 鈥渢hey鈥檒l implement a 50-state 鈥榖ackdoor ban鈥 on abortion 鈥 without Congress 鈥 and jail health care providers.鈥
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.
鈥淲e鈥檙e so focused on educating voters about 2025. It鈥檚 an extreme ban,鈥 said聽Julie Lewis, director of public policy at聽Planned Parenthood Votes, a super PAC affiliated with Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
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 Ronald Reagan adopted about 60 percent 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鈥檛 involved. A number of high-ranking officials from his administration, though, were. His running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, wrote the foreword to a yet-to-be-released book by Kevin Roberts, who is president of Heritage.
Roger Severino, vice president of domestic policy at Heritage, who wrote the HHS chapter in the Project 2025 blueprint, ran the agency鈥檚 Office for Civil Rights during Trump鈥檚 presidency.
Severino pushed back on Democratic claims that the document would ban medication abortion: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a lie, plain and simple,鈥 he said.
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