October 1, 2024
Lebanon: Escalation in Violence and Humanitarian Response
This article is the second in a series that highlights the dangerous implications of Trump and Project 2025 on the reproductive health and safety of millions in the U.S.
The upcoming U.S. elections represent a pivotal moment for the future of human rights, particularly regarding access to sexual and reproductive healthcare. With Project 2025—a detailed blueprint from conservative think tanks—looming, there are serious threats to those seeking reproductive care, especially in the wake of the dismantling of Roe v. Wade.
This election is not just about political preference; it’s a fight to protect reproductive rights and essential healthcare. Project 2025 outlines plans to drastically limit abortion access, revoke reproductive healthcare protections, and impose severe restrictions on contraception and family planning. Now, more than ever, this election presents a critical opportunity to safeguard these rights from further erosion.
Abortion Restrictions and Data Surveillance
Project 2025 seeks to redefine abortion so that it is no longer recognized as healthcare, and would ban the CDC from advocating for it. Denying abortion as healthcare is dangerous and naive. In many cases, abortion is necessary, especially when it threatens a woman’s health or life. In states where abortions have been banned or heavily restricted, increasing numbers of women are sharing stories of being denied the care they needed, resulting in serious health risks. Tragically, in some cases, the lack of timely care has even resulted in preventable deaths.
The authors of Project 2025 propose a dangerous overreach by the government through the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) by aiming to collect invasive data on women who have abortions, or have suffered a miscarriage. Their plan will coerce states into reporting detailed information on women seeking abortions – including gestational age, reasons for the procedure, and the patient’s residency – by threatening to cut federal funding.
They aim to rescind the Biden administration’s guidance under EMTALA, a crucial emergency medical law that ensures hospitals provide abortion care in life-threatening situations. Additionally, they propose dismantling the Reproductive Healthcare Access Task Force and replacing it with an anti-abortion task force, further restricting access to critical reproductive healthcare. This invasive approach risks criminalizing both patients and providers, threatening the health, privacy, and rights of women nationwide.
Revoking Abortion Medication Access and Support
While no administration can force states to ban abortions, they can make it incredibly difficult for women across the USA to have access to one. That is why the far-right agenda seeks to reverse the Food and Drug Administration’s long-standing approval of the abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol. These pills, widely regarded as one of the safest and most effective methods for abortion, have decades of research backing their use.
To further restrict access, Project 2025 proposes enforcing the Comstock Act which would prevent the mailing of abortion-related materials. This would create significant barriers for women in rural areas who rely on mail-order medication, particularly where nearby abortion clinics are unavailable. However, banning the medication and inhibiting its delivery is only one of the early steps Project 2025 has in mind when it comes to halting abortions nationwide.
Targeting Abortion Providers and Healthcare Access
Abortion providers, women’s health clinics and Planned Parenthood (PP) will all face backlash from Project 2025. The authors of the policy agenda promise to eliminate Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood, even for non-abortion services. PP is a lifeline for many women, providing affordable healthcare like breast-cancer screenings, birth control, and STI testing and treatment. In its attempt to ban abortion, Project 2025 also calls for stripping women of a multitude of health services, increasingly putting their health and lives at risk.
The proposal includes plans to remove emergency contraception coverage from the Affordable Care Act, a critical lifeline for many women in preventing unwanted pregnancies. The morning-after pill provides survivors in cases of rape and incest a vital option to prevent pregnancy after already experiencing immense trauma. Stripping away this coverage would have devastating consequences for women’s health, safety, and autonomy.
Enforcing abortion prosecution nation-wide
Project 2025 intends to strong-arm political adversaries into doing their bidding by urging the Department of Justice to take legal action against local officials, including District Attorneys, who refuse to prosecute abortion-related cases. This aggressive move is designed to force local officials to enforce far-right policies or face federal lawsuits, removal from office, or even criminal charges. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, TIME magazine states that nearly 100 local prosecutors have refused to pursue cases against individuals seeking or providing abortions, standing in opposition to these restrictive laws.
Privacy Violations
Project 2025 threatens to dismantle critical privacy protections under HIPAA, putting the confidentiality of abortion patients at serious risk. The Biden administration’s 2022 guidance, issued after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, was designed to safeguard patient privacy by restricting when healthcare providers could share information with law enforcement. Under these protections, hospital workers are prohibited from reporting suspected use of abortion pills, and law enforcement cannot demand clinic records without a court order. If Project 2025 succeeds, these safeguards will be repealed, opening the door to invasive surveillance and the criminalization of patients seeking reproductive care.
Family Planning
Project 2025 poses a serious threat to reproductive health by seeking to revive harmful policies from the Trump era, particularly targeting Title X, the nation’s only federal family planning program. Under Trump, Title X clinics were banned from even counseling patients about abortion, causing over 1,200 clinics to leave the program and drastically reducing access to affordable care.
While the Biden administration reversed this policy, Project 2025 seeks to reinstate the “gag rule” and shift Title X toward ineffective methods like fertility awareness. Fertility awareness is a risky birth control method that involves tracking the menstrual cycle, and is only about 75% effective in preventing pregnancy.
Project 2025 further plans to require that Title X clinics provide patients with information about the importance of marriage and pursuing the ‘family agenda,’ further limiting reproductive autonomy.
Conclusion
Project 2025 will have devastating consequences for women across the U.S., regardless of abortion laws in individual states. At Doctors of the World, we steadfastly believe that access to safe, legal abortion is a fundamental human right and an essential healthcare service. Globally, we provide emergency contraception, abortion care, post-abortion support, and family planning services in more than 75 countries. The choice to have children should always be a woman’s, as pregnancy is a physically demanding and life-altering experience with lasting impacts on health, mental well-being, and economic security.
By offering abortion and family planning services, we affirm a woman’s right to decide what is best for her body and her future. For some, abortion is crucial to securing that future. We also understand that even when women want to carry a pregnancy to term, unforeseen complications can make it too dangerous. Pregnancy carries significant health risks, and complications can become life-threatening.
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, we’ve seen women forced to endure dangerous pregnancies, leading to immense trauma. With the implementation of Project 2025, doctors warn that maternal mortality rates could rise, especially among marginalized groups that already face higher risks and inadequate care during pregnancy.
This November, you can make your voice heard and support women across the USA by voting to prevent Project 2025 from becoming a reality.
Sources:
- During first term in office, Trump Administration enacted more anti-LGBTQIA+ policies than any previous administration with devastating consequences – Fenway Health
- The 19th Explains: What you need to know about Project 2025
- What You Need to Know About Sexual & Reproductive Health and Project 2025 | NWHN
- Project 2025, Explained | American Civil Liberties Union
- Project 2025: what does the rightwing blueprint say about abortion?
- The Comstock Act’s Threat to Abortion Rights If Harris Loses | TIME