Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), released a new FACT SHEET on how a second Trump administration would wage an all-out assault on reproductive rights and abortion access in every state, beginning on Day One. These plans are outlined in detail by Trump allies and former administration staffers in Project 2025—a nearly 1,000-page playbook from an alliance of right-wing, vehemently anti-abortion groups—and include everything from overturning FDA approval of mifepristone, to ripping away access to contraception, to weaponizing a hostile federal government to track sensitive data about women seeking abortion care, to misapplying the 1873 Comstock Act in an attempt to ban the mailing of medication abortion, and much more.
“There are no two ways about it: Republicans intend to ban abortion nationwide. They have made their plan public for all the world to see with Project 2025, the radical and detailed agenda that a far-right alliance is preparing to implement under a second Trump administration,” said Senator Murray. “This plan by Donald Trump and his allies includes reversing FDA approval of mifepristone, attacking access to contraception, implementing a new regime of invasive abortion data tracking, and trying to misuse the 1873 Comstock Act—which the Department of Justice has repeatedly made clear does not apply—as a backdoor way to ban abortion nationwide by criminally prosecuting people for mailing medication abortion, and potentially even the medical supplies necessary for abortion care. It’s a detailed roadmap to rip away a woman’s right to choose in every single state in America—and they don’t even need Congress to try to do it! Americans need to understand that abortion rights are on the ballot this November, in every single state.”
FACT SHEET: TRUMP AND REPUBLICANS WILL BAN ABORTION AND ATTACK REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE EVERY WAY THEY CAN – TRUMP ALLIES OUTLINE EXACTLY HOW IN PROJECT 2025
***Read fact sheet below or HERE***
“The question will then become what can be done unilaterally at the executive branch level, and the answer is quite a bit” — Jonathan Mitchell, lifelong anti-abortion advocate and architect of Project 2025 [NYT]
“When I’m there at Mar-a-Lago… I get strong affirmation from everyone I meet there for my work” — Frank Pavone, radical anti-abortion advocate and national director of Priests for Life [NYT]
DAY ONE REPUBLICAN PRIORITIES TO BAN ABORTION AND ATTACK REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN 2025
BAN MEDICATION ABORTION: Republicans will ban medication abortion, the most common form of abortion, in every state. A Trump administration will waste no time in reversing FDA’s original 2000 approval of safe medication abortion[1] and misuse the long-dormant Comstock Act[2] to prosecute anyone who provides such medication by mail[3].
BACKDOOR NATIONWIDE ABORTION BAN: Republicans will, unequivocally seek to ban all abortion and make abortion inaccessible nationwide; in addition to attempting to misuse the antiquated Comstock Act to ban the mailing of medication abortion in every state, a second Trump administration could attempt to misuse the dormant statute to criminalize all materials used to provide basic abortion care[4].
JONATHAN MITCHELL, PROJECT 2025 ARCHITECT AND LIFELONG ANTI-ABORTION ADVOCATE is of the opinion: “We don’t need a federal ban when we have Comstock on the books… There’s a smorgasbord of options… I think the pro-life groups should keep their mouths shut as much as possible until the election.” [NYT, 2/17/24]
RIP AWAY ACCESS TO BASIC CONTRACEPTION WHILE PROMOTING ANTI-SCIENCE FORCED BIRTH DOGMA: Republicans will seriously jeopardize access to birth control by insisting that life begins at conception, renaming HHS as the “Department of Life”[5] and inaccurately redefining common forms of contraceptives, like Plan B[6], as abortifacients. They will redirect[7] federal family planning dollars from the Title X program to deceptive anti-choice pregnancy crisis centers and promote anti-science dogma[8] to patients looking for basic medical guidance. Importantly, Republicans will also seek to cut off Medicaid funding [9] to Planned Parenthood, the leading provider of sexual and reproductive health care for people of all incomes.
WEAPONIZE A “DEPARTMENT OF LIFE” AND THE WHOLE OF GOVERNMENT TO TRACK ABORTION DATA: Republicans would leverage the federal government to conduct invasive abortion data tracking [10] giving a hostile federal government sensitive information about women who needed abortion care—Republicans would force states to comply through the threat of withholding Medicaid dollars[11].
CUTTING OFF LIFESAVING CARE FOR WOMEN WHOSE HEALTH AND LIFE IS AT RISK: Republicans will refuse to enforce federal protections [12]that allow women to receive emergency stabilizing care including abortion if their life or health is in imminent danger[13], making pregnancy more dangerous for women across America. Project 2025 also makes the dangerous and false claim that abortion is not health care[14], imperiling women whose health and lives depend on receiving safe abortion care.
END IVF AS WE KNOW IT AND HALT LIFESAVING AND GROUNDBREAKING MEDICAL RESEARCH: By insisting that life begins at conception, Project 2025 would encourage HHS to find ways to outlaw and restrict IVF[15], which relies on generating multiple embryos, most of which are not implanted and are discarded. Republicans would also prohibit the use of federal dollars for stem cell research[16].
STACK THE COURTS WITH ANTI-CHOICE EXTREMISTS WHO WILL ATTACK REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY: As president, Donald Trump appointed 226 judges, including three Supreme Court justices who gave Republicans on the court a majority to overturn Roe v. Wade—which Donald Trump’s anti-abortion had been plotting for decades—in additional to other extremist anti-abortion ideologues like Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who tried to rip away access to medication abortion for everyone in America. Donald Trump’s leaked list of potential Supreme Court nominees if he wins a second term include well-known anti-abortion extremists including Judges James Ho and Neomi Rao; another Trump term would be another opportunity for him to pack the courts with far-right ideologues.
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP “After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the ‘shock’ of everyone… Without me the pro Life movement would have just kept losing” [Truth Social, May 17, 2023]
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[1] “Reverse [FDA]s] approval of chemical abortion drugs” [Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership,” p.458]
[2] “Stop promoting or approving mail-order abortions in violation of longstanding federal laws that prohibit the mailing and interstate carriage of abortion drugs.” [Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership,” p.459]
[3] “Announcing a Campaign to Enforce the Criminal Prohibitions in 18 U.S. Code §§ 1461 and 1462 [Comstock Act] Against Providers and Distributors of Abortion Pills That Use the Mail… Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, there is now no federal prohibition on the enforcement of this statute. The Department of Justice in the next conservative Administration should therefore announce its intent to enforce federal law against providers and distributors of such pills.” [Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership,” p.562]
[4] “[A] far-right DOJ could exploit its authority to broadly criminalize various aspects of the mailing of medication abortion and abortion-related materials… A prosecution could be limited to the medicine itself or broadly based to include materials commonly used in surgical abortions, such as dilators and suction catheters. Moreover, the DOJ has the authority to decide what punishment can be attached to a Comstock violation, including potential felony charges, severe monetary fees, loss of professional license, and prison time… Cumulatively, a far-right DOJ can destroy—from start to finish—the entire system of medication abortion via mail.” [Center for American Progress, “Project 2025’s Distortion of a Reconstruction-Era Law Could Enact a National Abortion Ban]
[5] “Language across the Project 2025 document makes clear that the authors believe that life begins at conception. And they specifically state that the Health and Human Services Department should return to be known as the Department of Life. And they explicitly reject the notion that abortion is health care.” [PBS NewsHour, “Trump’s plans for health care and reproductive rights if he returns to White House,” 5/22/24]
[6] “Eliminate the week-after-pill from the contraceptive mandate as a potential abortifacient.” [Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership,” pp.485]
[7] Reverse a Biden administration regulation that groups receiving Title X funds must be willing to “refer” women to abortion providers even if they don’t provide abortion themselves, thereby allowing “otherwise qualified pro-life grantees” to receive funding. [Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership,” pp.491]
[8] Require federal agencies to promote controversial and often ineffective methods of natural family planning: “CDC should update its public messaging about the unsurpassed effectiveness of modern fertility awareness–based methods (FABMs) of family planning…. CDC should fund studies exploring the evidence-based methods used in cutting-edge fertility awareness.” [Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership,” pp.455]
[9] Prohibit Medicaid funding from going to Planned Parenthood, despite the fact that Planned Parenthood is often one of the only options for low-income women seeking contraception. [Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership,” p.471]
[10] “The CDC’s abortion surveillance and maternity mortality reporting systems are woefully inadequate… Because liberal states have now become sanctuaries for abortion tourism, HHS should use every available tool, including the cutting of funds, to 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… The Ensuring Accurate and Complete Abortion Data Reporting Act of 20239 would amend title XIX of the Social Security Act and Public Health Service Act to improve the CDC’s abortion reporting mechanisms by requiring states, as a condition of federal Medicaid payments for family planning services, to report streamlined variables in a timely manner. Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership,” pp.455-456]
[11] “The Ensuring Accurate and Complete Abortion Data Reporting Act of 20239 would amend title XIX of the Social Security Act and Public Health Service Act to improve the CDC’s abortion reporting mechanisms by requiring states, as a condition of federal Medicaid payments for family planning services, to report streamlined variables in a timely manner.” [Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership,” p.456]
[12] Reverse Biden administration interpretation of The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) that requires that hospitals provide necessary stabilizing treatment including abortion care, to women facing dire medical emergencies. [Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership,” pp.473-474]
[13] Affirm “a robust respect for the sacred rights of conscience,” that could allow providers to deny standard medical care to pregnant women facing dangerous complications. [Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership,” p.450]
[14] Deny that abortion is health care: “Abortion is not health care, and states should be free to devise and implement programs that prioritize qualified providers that are not entangled with the abortion industry.” [Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership,” p.472]
[15] [The Nation, “Project 2025 Has Bad Medicine for HHS,” 6/4/24; PBS NewsHour, “Trump’s plans for health care and reproductive rights if he returns to White House,” 5/22/24]
[16] Prohibit stem cell research: “Research using fetal tissue obtained from elective abortions is immoral and obsolete. Research using human embryonic stem cells also involves the destruction of human life and should not be subsidized with taxpayer dollars [Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership,” pp.460-461]
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