Hi, I’m Yves. I’m late in really covering Project 2025, but I hope this post is a good starting point. Unfortunately, ambitious and well-organized right-wing campaigns have proven very successful in significantly increasing the acceptance of social policy agendas, as evidenced by the Powell Memo and the Project for the New American Century.
Trump is a clear target for the Heritage Foundation’s plan. His first presidency was a dog-catch-the-car affair, leaving him with dangerously few plans and a weak cabinet. Steve Mnuchin’s tax reform plan, for example, was so poor that it amounted to little more than a napkin draft. So after that failure, the administration adopted the plans of anti-tax lobby groups, including their pre-made language. Trump may be a little more prepared to be president if elected again, but that doesn’t make him any less willing to accept his allies’ pre-packaged programs. This effort is therefore very noteworthy.
Diana Cariboni began writing for Tracking the Backlash in 2018 and is currently openDemocracy’s Latin America Editor. Previously, she was co-editor-in-chief of the IPS news agency, where she led the Latin America desk for over 10 years. She wrote the book “Guantánamo Entre Nosotros” (2017), which won the Uruguay National Press Award in 2018. Open Democracy
Last month, populist leaders from around the world gathered Europe Viva 24 The summit took place in Madrid. The event was headlined by big names such as Argentine President Javier Milley, France’s Marine Le Pen, Chile’s José Antonio Casto, Italy’s and Hungary’s Prime Ministers Giorgia Meloni and Viktor Orbán. Diplomatic dispute between Argentina and Spain.
But away from all this noise and anger was a little-known speaker: Roger Severino. Former senior official in Donald Trump’s administration Vice President for Domestic Policy at the Heritage Foundation, a leading American think tank.
Severino gave a six-minute speech in Spanish. Trump As a victim of loaferry initiated by the “left,” he said young people are exposed to a “culture and medical system” that tells them to “explore all sexual desires by age 10” and that “abortion is about health care, not killing babies.”
She added that young people are also taught that “if you feel uncomfortable with your gender, you were probably born in the wrong body and you can have surgery to fix that mistake,” and “I’m here to tell you that God makes no mistakes.”
Severino was one of the authors of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for a second term for Trump, which calls for restructuring the federal government in 180 days, firing tens of thousands of civil servants and replacing them with conservative loyalists, weakening the separation of powers, and destroying the Trump administration. Public Educationand the right to erase or restrict woman, LGBTQ people, Worker, Immigration and Black.
Also, Dismantling the policy To tackle climate change and promote a fossil fuel-dependent energy policy.
The plan is:A mission for leadership: the Conservative Party’s promise‘ is an 887-page playbook published by a think tank whose mission is “to develop and advance conservative public policy based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual liberty, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.”
It’s not a stretch to say some of the Heritage Foundation’s proposals could become law if Trump wins in November. The politically well-connected organization was founded in 1973 and published its first “Directives for Leadership” in 1981, when Ronald Reagan took office. Boast Reagan enacted over 60% Policy Recommendations.
Severino served as director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights under President Trump and wrote the health section of Project 25. The word “abortion” appears 199 times in the entire document, 149 of which occur in this chapter, which calls for the federal government to eliminate (or limit as much as possible) reproductive health care and rights that it is responsible for overseeing.
Severino proposes decertifying abortion pills and banning their distribution by mail, banning the use of federal funds to transport people in states where abortion is illegal to states where it is not, cutting federal funding to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, and removing emergency contraception from coverage under workers’ health insurance.
By contrast, proposals to address the real public health crisis in the United States are hard to find. Opioids, Declining life expectancyAnd then it rises Maternal and infant Mortality. This is perhaps not surprising. The Heritage Foundation has 1973 Roe The bill, which allows abortions up to 23 weeks, is a victory, but it also hasJust the beginning“.
Two years have passed since the Roe decision was abolished. 21 states Banning or severely restricting abortion; Legislative and judicial battle Others are trying to follow suit, but the number of abortions per year is actually increasing. according to To Multiple studies And so the dystopian battle plans for the continuing war on reproductive autonomy unfold. In some U.S. cities, Had made It is illegal to use a state’s roads to transport someone seeking an abortion from a state where abortion is prohibited to a state where it is permitted.
Project 2025 goes further, calling on the Ministry of Health to make it a top priority to “protect life, conscience, and bodily integrity” and to “strongly respect the sacred right of conscience.” Severino’s chapter also calls for legislation requiring states to record data on abortions, including the number of abortions, the reasons, the method, the length of pregnancy, and the state of residence of those seeking abortions.
It also suggests that publicly funded scientific research should focus on “the risks and complications of abortion” and “debunking and discouraging misinformation about the health and psychological benefits of childbirth compared with the health and psychological risks of intentionally taking a human life through abortion”.
But Project 2025’s focus isn’t just on reproductive health.
The preamble reads that the president taking office in 2025 “shall remove from all existing rules, regulatory agencies, contracts, grants, regulations, and Federal laws any term that refers to sexual orientation and gender identity, diversity, equity, inclusion, gender, gender equality, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, or any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights, which protect freedom of religion, freedom of speech and press, and the right to seek a redress of grievances from the government.”
Severino added: “Future governments must immediately stop collecting data on gender identity because it legitimizes the unscientific idea that men become women (and vice versa) and contributes to the phenomenon of the constant proliferation of subjective identities.”
Anti-human rights past and future
The Heritage Foundation was not the only influential institution involved in writing Project 25. 100 Organizations Some of the individuals who serve on the advisory board or directly contribute to the Playbook have played key roles in advancing extremist agendas in the United States over the years and decades.
In 2018, four years before Roe was overturned, Mississippi banned abortions in the state after 15 weeks. Modeled after banknotes Conceived The law was enacted by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as an anti-LGBTQ hate group and sits on the advisory board of Project 25. The law has been challenged and blocked by two courts on the grounds that it violates Roe and is unconstitutional.
The law’s proponents aimed to bring the case all the way to the Supreme Court, where Roe would be challenged and ultimately overturned. Their strategy relied on a right-wing majority on the Court, which was secured by Leonard Leo, a conservative lawyer and activist who had founded a network of groups and funding bases and who had already been influential in the appointment of the other three justices. Successfully Lobbied Trump He appointed three anti-abortion justices to the Supreme Court, giving it a conservative supermajority of six out of nine justices. Nonprofit Network Have He reportedly donated millions of dollars Organizations serving on the Project 2025 Advisory Board since 2021.
As a result, roughly one-third of women of reproductive age in the United States, and other people who are not women but can become pregnant, live in states where abortion is banned or severely restricted. Guttmacher Institute.
The Heritage Foundation, ADF and LEO did not respond to requests for comment.
